The Importance of Self Love

When it comes to healing, I’ve always understood that intention is important. Set the intention for healing and it will happen. It occurred to me recently that all healing comes down to love. If you subscribe to the holistic viewpoint that our illnesses and diseases and even our troublesome life experiences are there to teach us something on our journey, then it strikes me that most things can be healed with love. Love for the planet, love for those around us and often forgotten (and perhaps hardest to do) love for ourselves.

We heal others out of a position of love, working from the heart centre or heart chakra. When it comes to ourselves, many of us are extremely intolerant. We figure, somehow, that we are not deserving of love, others deserve our time, but we, ourselves are not worthy. It’s easy to give a kind word to a friend or even a stranger, but we remain hellishly hard on ourselves: ‘I’m not good enough’, ‘I’m too fat/thin’, ‘I’m too this or too that’’. Whilst we continue to think in this way, our systems remain out of kilter, energy remains blocked and stress builds.

When we learn to listen inwardly, we can sometimes, if we try really hard, listen to what our bodies have been trying to tell us for years…that we each deserve love, respect and forgiveness. We all make mistakes, but if we recognise that whilst flawed, we can be better, then life is a lot easier. We don’t have to let old traumas and emotions affect us for the course of our whole life. But more important than just listening is dialogue and communication. We need to tell ourselves that we love and appreciate ourselves. We need to soothe our sores and aches and pains with compassion. We need to let go of all that we no longer need and start afresh, in a spirit of peace and forgiveness. We need to forget old arguments and troubles and concentrate on what is important: love.

So, give yourself permission. Tell yourself that you’re not that bad after all, in fact you’re pretty blooming marvelous. And tell yourself gently, or shout it from the hills, that you are worthy of love and that you do, in fact, have love and respect for yourself. Try it over a course of a few weeks and see how life begins to unfold for you. Do you have more energy? Are you more relaxed? Do you feel better in yourself?

I’ll try if you will.