Love In Action, Part Two
Love in action. What does it look like when you love yourself unconditionally? You learn to cultivate trust, respect, and a myriad of other “friends” of unconditional love. More and more, life opens up to you and becomes a beautiful series of moments and experiences intertwined together under the heading of You.
When you learn to love yourself, you go inside for answers instead of turning without. You know what is right for you and you begin to trust that in each moment. You become your own guiding light, your own support structure, your own cheerleader. You nominate yourself team captain and start making the best decisions you can, with the knowledge and wisdom you have earned from your past mistakes and life experiences.
Loving yourself means you no longer accept anything less than respect from those around you. You real-eyes that you are a part of this grand design and as such your thoughts, feelings, and concerns, are just as important as the next person’s. You demand others treat you with respect and together you develop a mutual understanding of what is expected between you and them. If the other party does not live up to this, you may invite them to change or find another person to disrespect.
Loving yourself means ending the constant criticism in your head that says, you’re not good enough. It means building yourself up slowly instead of tearing yourself down in a hapless instant. It means accepting all your flaws and… actually… starting to love them. (Who says being clumsy isn’t cute? Who says that crooked nose isn’t unique and lovable?).
When you love yourself, you can accept constructive criticism from others. You understand they are there to mirror your flaws, and show you your blind spots. Loving yourself means you don’t get angry, because you are secure enough in yourself to know that these are the people in your life, who care enough about you, to help you grow.
Loving yourself means finding what works instead of focusing on what doesn’t. It means cultivating your gifts and talents because you know you came into this life to share them with the greater aspects of humanity. It means knowing you have the potential to be the greatest version of yourself, so you dream the impossible dream into existence. It means saying things to yourself like, “What would it take for ___ to happen” or “What else is possible?”, because you believe in self-actualization.
Loving yourself means treating your body like your temple, and providing it nourishment at the most basic level. You give your body what it needs: clean food, clean water, sunshine, some form of daily exercise, daily meditative thoughts or journaling, or some other form of stress relief. It means knowing the difference between a treat and a binge, and being okay with either choice. It means giving yourself permission to have fun, and to enjoy life.
Loving yourself means dedicating yourself to finding out what brings you joy or makes you happy. Could it be art, music, poetry, pottery, taking a class, or learning a new language? Could it be gardening, volunteering, sewing your own clothes, or taking a trip somewhere new?
“I am me, and that is all I need to be.”
Love means being in a state of allowance for yourself. Being honest and truthful with yourself above all else.
