Loving Yourself is the Only Option

We are told that if we don’t love ourselves, receiving love is almost impossible. We read, see, and hear experts from all areas and walks of life telling us that loving ourselves is required so that we can experience lives of meaning, purpose, fulfillment and joy. How do we learn to do this in a world that often tries, actually thrives, on telling us that we are not lovable as we are?

Sometimes it starts in childhood. We get messages about achievement from parents, teachers, and peers that reinforce the idea that our lovability (or even likability) is directly related to what we DO and not who we ARE. It’s as if we are constantly trying to measure up to a forever moving benchmark that has no reference point, and no end.

Where do we learn to practice loving ourselves? How do we access the innate truth that we are made from love, and born into love?

The answer to this is: right now. Right this minute we can do our best to love ourseves through the frustration, the disappointment. We can love ourselves through the “wins”, the places where we feel like we really nailed it! And we can love ourselves when we perceived that we “failed”, or that we just didn’t measure up in some way. We can love the part of ourselves that doesn't think we are lovable at all. And we can love the part of us that knows how truly lovable we are.

This is a lifelong practice. Love is a verb. It’s the action we take to connect with the truth of who we are. As long as we are breathing, awake, present and aware, we can practice loving ourselves and trusting that we can love and be loving exactly as we are.