Why Loving Yourself Changes Everything

[Continued from The Power of Self-Love]
Namaste,
Welcome back to my series on self-love! Please take a moment now to become present, and open to the reality of an all-pervading love.
Love is all around, within, always. The very fabric of the universe pulsates at the frequency of love, of joy, of abundance. In each moment we are loved beyond what we could ever imagine. We only believe otherwise because of our own distorted thoughts, wounds and attachments. So why do we hold on to feeling disconnected, searching for love ‘to fill me up’ from ‘out there’, rather than within?
Perhaps it is habit, socialized patterns, a sort of cosmic amnesia that keeps us asleep rather than truly empowered. Perhaps it is easier to blame than take responsibility. There is a subtle power we get from feeling like a powerless victim.
It can feel scary to take responsibility for your own happiness, because it requires you to look within and change the things that hold you back from growing. It involves being accountable for your life and letting go of blaming everyone, even your parents, or the universe, for your wounds. The truth is that, at a spiritual level, you have chosen your parents and every aspect of your life. Everything that exists in your life is a reflection of your thoughts and beliefs and provides perfect support for your growth. There are no mistakes, only opportunities to learn and grow.
In order to embrace change, you need the courage and a certain gentle determination to develop self-love. The love you have been seeking can only be found when you have the willingness to welcome yourself into your heart. By opening up to the totality of who you are and embracing it fully, you welcome the love from the universe into your life. You then can also welcome love from others. When you love yourself, you discover how to co-create with love from someone else.
Without self-love, you may graft yourself onto another person’s energy, because you are not rooted in who you are. Your rootedness comes from your relationship with the cosmos and the ever-present reality (not the elusive, romantic myth) of love. This relationship with the divine is deeply personal, something for you alone to understand and cultivate. Rooted in your own unique connection with the divine, your life becomes like a well-nourished tree growing in fertile soil.
SELF-LOVE, SELF-CONFIDENCE AND SELF-ESTEEM
Self-love is different from self-confidence or having a healthy self-esteem, though they can be related. In self-confidence, you trust your ability to discern or act. In self-esteem, you have a quiet assurance of your place within the whole, a feeling of being a valuable and integral part of the universe. Self-love involves the ability to treat yourself with understanding, kindness, patience and gentle perseverance. Deeper still, self-love involves your ability to know that your true nature is love and that your human destiny is to embody that love and express it in all you do.
Some may associate self-love with being indulgent, narcissistic, egotistical, vain or selfish. Yet nothing could be further from the truth. Self-love honours your highest good and will not enable that which keeps you stuck in your small self. In coming to recognize yourself as a reflection of the divine, you see that all things reflect the divine. Self-love is humble and vibrant. It is sacred and brings you closer to the divine. As you come to sense and serve the universe within yourself, you are able to sense, love and serve all that is. When you love yourself, you can truly love others.
When you love yourself, you look at life not as something happening to you, but as a reflection of who you are. You don’t feel separate from people, places and things, but see yourself within your surroundings. You feel closer to, even a part of, everything. There is a gentle sense of containment or embrace at all times, no matter what. In this, you feel rooted, vital and expansive, able to participate in life and follow your true joy with openness and courage.
Self-love requires a paradigm shift, understanding yourself as existing within a much greater whole, and feeling connected with that reality. When you allow yourself to be wholly who you are, you embody the divine. Your deepest joy is your way into the realm of possibility, a guiding light into your true, infinite nature.
There is no force “out there” in the universe that is separate from your true self. The will of the universe dances to the rhythm of love and is supported by joy. In essence, your joy is the universe’s joy. We are all beings of love. Let us remember our true nature and set ourselves free. Love, love, love. It is all about love.
EXERCISE: SEE THE DIVINE IN YOURSELF AND IN ALL THINGS
With an open mind, and a bit of time, walk over to a private mirror. Look into it and see yourself reflected back to you. Rather than seeing all the things that you find wrong with yourself, look at the luminosity behind your skin, no matter what colour it is or what state it may be in. Look at how it shines. Open to it. Receive it. Allow it to come forward. Allow your body/being to expand and express that light. It is the divine, your true nature, shining back at you! Hello!
Now walk outside. Be open to that same radiance coming through all things. The tree is not just bark and branches and leaves, but part of the body of the divine. See the luminosity within the tree. The same light exists within all things, even cars and buildings. Open to it and welcome it into your field of experience.
Look at the people on the street. Even in those who are closed, in pain, and look like they are having a bad day, there is light there, behind their sorry story. That light is carrying them in every moment. They likely do not know it, but you can! In your touching it, you can boost its signal and mirror it back to them as a gift.
That light is love. That light is the divine. That light is their true nature, your true nature, our true nature that sustains and shines through all matter. The more you focus on that eternal luminosity, the more healing and love you bring to yourself and to all beings. You literally are one with the divine, lighting up the world. Yes!
May we each remember our true nature, embody love and set the world’s heart ablaze.
Until next time,
Love yourself.
Love others.
Love our world.
We are one Earth family.
Namaste,
Parvati