Loving Yourself Unconditionally
Most religions teach us altruism and to 'love your neighbor like
yourself'.
Have you ever wondered, whether your neighbor would actually
like that?
Because, frankly speaking, how much do YOU love yourself?
Of course we all love ourselves. Easy! We love ourselves in
those times when things go well, when we do the right things,
when we act gracefully, when we are likable and can feel proud
of ourselves. But what about the other times? When you make a
fool out of yourself? When you act like an idiot? When you fail
or, even worse, behave in an ugly way? When you feel ashamed and
stupid and not proud of yourself one bit? Do you still love
yourself then? Or do you abandon yourself in shame and guilt? In
other words: Is your love for your self conditional or
unconditional?
It's an important question. It's the question that makes all the
difference in your life!
YOU! Fundamentally you are good. Your innermost core, that which
is you, is divine. And chances are that you try your very best
to express that and you try to live up to your divine potential
(you probably wouldn't be reading this otherwise). Chances also
are, that you are not 100 % successful in living up to your
divine potential. And chances are, that this is exactly when you
regularly abandon yourself and stop loving yourself.
How does that feel, when you stop loving your self?
Imagine a little child, innocent, vulnerable, open. And that
little child has a friend. A big one, bigger and stronger and
much more powerful than the child itself. And the little child
loves and trusts that big friend absolutely. But every time the
child does something wrong, maybe something it doesn't even know
is wrong, the big friend just goes and abandons the little kid.
Just doesn't love it anymore. The child would probably just
stand there, alone and utterly confused and hurt and it's self
esteem would be completely undermined. And because the child
trusts and loves the big friend, and because the big friend
seems so much more powerful than the child, at some point the
child would side with the big friend and abandon itself. Does
that sound familiar to you? Is that what happened to you as a
kid? Then the chances are, that you are still doing exactly
this: abandoning yourself and stop loving yourself every time
you do wrong. And maybe even when you don't do anything wrong,
because by now your self esteem has suffered so much, that you
just in general don't trust your self any more
Having grown up you are now both: The child and the big friend.
And as that child you deserve unconditional love. You always
have and you always will. It is the single most important thing
you need to grow, become beautiful and flower into your full
divine self. And the one person who needs to give you that
unconditional love is YOU.
How is change possible, how can you be fulfilled, when the very
closest friend you have, YOU, walks away from you. And if YOU
don't take care of that frightened, abandoned little child in
you, who else will?
Now I'm not saying you are always likable. That's conditional.
You might be a real shit sometimes. Then you might not be
likable.
But you are always lovable. Unconditionally.
You might also not always find it easy to love yourself. And you
might ever so often completely forget to love yourself.
But the one thing you can decide right now, is to be WILLING to
always love yourself unconditionally.
If you decide that, then whenever you realize you are abandoning
yourself, you can come back to loving yourself.
It doesn't mean you approve of everything you do. In fact,
loving yourself unconditionally is what gives you the
possibility to disapprove of your acts because you no longer
need to identify with your acts. That makes it the most powerful
tool to help you take responsibility for your mistakes and
change.
So if there is ONE thing you want to do for your self: Make a
pact with yourself. Make a conscious decision: To be willing to
always love yourself unconditionally. That is enough to change
your life.