Greetings Beloved Ones!
Wow, we are still on the topic of self-love so it must really be important to our well being and spiritual growth! I want to ask, "what's love got to do with it"? Well apparently a lot!
We are so willing to criticize ourselves, point out our flaws and imperfections but.....we are not so comfortable with truly expressing and affirming self-love. Self-love is not the same as self-respect, self-esteem, self-centeredness, self-absorbed, or selfish. But what is it?
The questions for today are:
. What is self-love?
. What is the difference between self-acceptance and self-centeredness?
. What does loving your neighbor as yourself, mean?
I love you all!
Rev. Sylvia
Good morning Rev. I have missed my daily lessons with you being bombarded with other stuff which kinda plays into the lesson on self love. I sometimes allow myself to let things outside of myself become more important than what is important to my inner life. I want to make a difference for others yet I compromise making a difference for myself. Self love is giving yourself priority over others. Giving the same care to myself that I give to others. I am reminded that I must put my mask on first in case of an emergency on the plane in order to help someone else. This course is a priority to me and this lesson has taught me that I have a right to love myself enough to make it such. Thank you for making this a priority for you and for us.
ReplyDeleteToday's topic is very important to me. You may call me a late blommer in the self-love department. It is very easy for me to love others but until I started going to Unity and Jim Webb's metaphysical center for the last ten years, I did not know what self love felt like. As I began to know a GOD that could love me unconditionally, I did not love myself unconditionally .
ReplyDeleteI am very grateful to the teachers in my life who have allowed me to know a loving God that loves me unconditionally. I try to treat others as they want to be treated, rather than how I want to be treated. This allows me to accept other however they may show up.
Self love to me means loving myself unconditionally as a child of God. Sometimes by the way I do some things, it appears that I’ve not fully integrated the knowledge of self love with the actual practice of self love. My actions are not always in alignment with my thoughts about self love. Still working on that.
ReplyDeleteI believe that people who are self-centered are very focused on themselves – most of their perceptions and actions come from a place where their lens is centered on of their way of being, thinking or doing and not necessarily considering another’s perspective. Some of that may come from the fact that they’ve only had to be concerned about themselves and not had to consider others in the equations. That’s different from people who are selfish and it’s all about them, the whole world revolves around them and they only consider themselves.
Before I had my children I was very self-centered and didn’t know it. I only had to think about me and that’s what I did. It was only when I became responsible for others and had to consider them first or in the equation at all, did I discover how self centered I was – that was an ah-ha moment!
Self acceptance to me is when you accept yourself for who you are, your strengths and areas in need of improvement and acknowledge that “it is what it is” and you accept what it is!
Loving my neighbor as myself is extending the same honor and respect to others that I do to myself and loving them as a creation of God.
In my family and in society, in general, the message I got was praising myself was prideful, selfish and wrong. This philosophy promoted the mind-set, if I received praise, it should come from others. Essentially my need for praise, validation and acceptance was contingent upon someone else conferring it upon me. I was taught to take responsibility for my mistakes, admit my wrongdoing, confess my sins but I was not taught to self praise the good. An ah-ha moment.
ReplyDeleteNumerous scriptures in the Old and New Testaments speak to the fact that we are to love ourselves: Matt 22: 39, Leviticus 19:18; Galatians 5:14 and many other places. Self acceptance is self love. Self acceptance is loving or at least appreciating who I am now. Not who I am journeying to become nor clinging to who I was yesterday. It is about the now moment. Self acceptance is my internal commitment to myself. My commitment to cherish, speak more lovingly to and about myself and appreciate my whole self even the parts I am working to change. Self centeredness is characteristic of people who are unable or willing to put themselves in the shoes of another. Their ability to see beyond how life impacts them is unlimited. Their thoughts and actions are chiefly or exclusively on themselves to the exclusion of others
Self love is not exercised to the exclusion or disregard of others but it is the conduit to offer love to others.
I like Sagenveritas's definition of self love. To be able to love who I am in the moment, not the person I am trying to be would be a wonderfully thing. I must admit that taking this concept from the intellectual to the actual is new for me. Right now I am striving to understand how my self love is to manifest.
ReplyDeleteSelf centered people have no consideration for others or they think of others as means to an end
To me loving my neighbor means existing with mutual respect. "Do unto to others as you would have others do unto you"