Love Is All There Is

 The first time the idea of self love was introduced to me, I had no idea how to love myself. I was about 24, taking a seminar called Loving Relationships Training back in the early 80's . 

 I was actually a bit shocked how clueless I was about how to even begin that process.

So I decided to find out.  Thirty- odd years later, these are some of the pieces I found most effective:

1)You can start with making yourself a priority.. amazingly enough most of us are pretty far down on our list of priorities.  This is a great start, as you are not yet ready to say  “I am my first priority” but you are saying HEY I am on the list. I wrote I AM A PRIORITY on a strip of paper and taped it to my computer monitor edge where I would see it every day. All my life I had done a whole lot of putting the needs of others first, compromising, and flat out allowing myself to be oppressed.  No more of that. 

 2) Next I found that redefining and relabeling things I formerly found fault with in myself helped. So a tendency to be forgetful became “interesting wiring” or “understandable misconceptions” –then accepting those traits and not labeling them as “bad or good” was a great step forward. When we come in as babies, we don’t come wired to self-criticize ourselves (well actually some of us have baggage from other lives so that is not always true- which is a point of forgiveness toward  the WHOLE self, which may take a whole lot of awareness to get to, so better start now LOL.)   A simple act of compassion and forgiveness toward yourself or another can trigger an avalanche of release that wipes out a whole lot of stray karmic crap.  It’s amazing. 

 3) Sometimes I think connecting with Source energy, which is the basis of all self-love, is more about defining what pleases you, what makes you feel truly connected, and what makes your vibrational frequency go higher. This could be petting your cat rather than a long meditation. I’m all for trying anything that feels positive. The point is to be easy on yourself. Ease up.  Really.  Reach for joyful interaction in the smallest parts of your reality and they will quickly expand into more joyful moments.  Fill up your days with those.  Take a leap of faith into your true calling.  

4) ASK, have Faith, it’s Done.  We forget to ask for what we REALLY want and are quick to say “oh I can’t have that”… well think again. Nothing is too big to ask. So I asked to go to England.  The cooperatives components that brought that about moved so fast it was head spinning.  So go ahead, ASK - ask to have the pathway to Self Love lit up for you like the yellow brick road. And ask for the red shoes, too.