How Deep Is Your Self Love?
By Jim Malloy
Jun 4, 2008
One of the biggest lessons on the spiritual journey is learning to love unconditionally. However, what is often overlooked, is the importance of loving yourself along with everything else. After all, aren't you a part of the whole of Life? Here is a wonderful old haiku which illustrates this... "On my horse, clip-clopping through the field. Aha! I'm part of the picture!" As you grow to realize that you are an integral part of Life's grand picture, it becomes clear that loving yourself along with everything else is part of the mission.
Some of you may feel uncomfortable with the idea of self love, because it's often interpreted as being overly self involved. Many religions teach that total selflessness is the ideal, and that self love is the antithesis of being selfless. I'm not at all knocking selflessness, but is self love really opposed to selflessness? And is it the same as
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As we take on these conditions, another interesting dynamic often occurs. We tend to project these conditions for being loved onto Spirit. Somewhere deep in our consciousness, the belief develops that "God will only love me if I'm _______________." (Fill in the blank with whatever conditions you discover.) Of course this belief is absolutely erroneous because Spirit's love is absolutely unconditional.
But in our minds - generally our subconscious minds - our parents' conditions for loving us, Spirit's conditions for loving us, and our own conditions for loving ourselves, all become intertwined. As a result, we may go through life constantly striving to meet these conditions as an unconscious attempt to earn the love of Spirit, family, and self. And because the conditions are rarely attained in full, healthy self love remains elusive.
Self Love Shortage and its Effects
What are the major effects of not loving