Grow love within yourself

Love starts within yourself...the rest will follow

It seems true to me what Louise Hay (2017) explains in many of her audio tapes about self love (not vanity). Louise states that who loves themselves will never hurt themselves and in turn will never hurt others. If every single individual in the world would have self love, there would be no poverty and there would be world peace.

Loving ourselves does not mean being selfish, it just means taking loving care of our mind and body creating healthy habits which enriches our good mental and physical health. Only then we would act lovingly and those around us will feed from those positive feelings glowing from us...and learn to return it in the same way.

" I believe in Karma. If the good is sown, the good is collected. When positive things are made, that returns well".                 Yannick Noah (karma quotes, 2016)

Loving ourselves, helps us love moments, situations and do good for ourselves and others. Whether is plants, animals, bugs and every living thing earth created... we can dissolve fear and let life flow around us. I used to fear spiders and then I learn that spiders have a quite a funny way of behaving and I started understanding them. I have not hurt any little spiders whenever they visit my living space, I let them stay if not on the way or lovingly place it outside to let it continue its life journey…good actions create good feelings and in turn improves our health.

(Hay, 2017) Louise states that if every child is taught at a young age that they are loved, beautiful, wonderful individuals, special to their unique ways of thinking, the would learn to appreciate and love themselves just the way they are. If children feel this way, they would feel happy with themselves and have kind thoughts and in turn show kindness to other children. This would follow as they become adults and share life with others.

They would then grow to be mentally healthy and strong, creating a positive cycle within society, if we love ourselves and appreciate what we are, we would not think angrily and in turn we would not say angry thoughts to other.

'Amor Materno' painting by Lucia Daou

I found this belief to be true and only by practising with ourselves, we can test it in our lives. Challenges are put constantly in our path, if not by us, by other people who do not have love for themselves and others. However, this can be changed by starting within ourselves. If we consciously choose our reactions and thoughts to given challenges, then those close to us will be receptive of our positive actions and also benefit, once again reinforcing our inner love.  

A personal challenge where I have shown myself my power of self love recently was when working to realise one of my many dreams, one involving travelling to see a beautiful place. I had to ask my daughter’s father who has a parental responsibilities if he could have her during the summer holidays for 12 days. 

A message came through my daughter who was clueless of my plans to tell me that his father is no one’s babysitter and that my trip will never happen. 

For a moment I started feeling my anger building up in my stomach, my head telling me to say angry things….and I quickly managed to stop them.

The given challenge not only transferred anger towards me but also lack of love towards himself and others around him. It made me aware of how much my own attitudes and examples impact on other people's emotions around me, especially her emotions and  young innocent mind.

I quickly managed to dissolve this awful feeling that I was creating within my thoughts by changing them into good thoughts, “let it go it is not worth the negative feeling in me and in my daughter”, “I have the power in my thoughts to let go of the situation and make it non-important”, “everything happens for a reason”, “I trust life and I flow with it”. 

Since trusting life works its ways, I had positive alternatives come my way providing me with the opportunities to pursue my dream and most importantly to continue flowing with life having peace of mind.

One of my favourite books I read many years ago was ‘The Alchemist’ by Paulo Coelho. 

The messages within this book give us a strength of desire to attract everything we wish as well as never losing focus of life around us...

These are some of my favourite statements the wise man tells the learner :

• “It's the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting.” 

• “One is loved because one is loved. No reason is needed for loving.” 

• “When we love, we always strive to become better than we are. When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better too.” 

• “There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.” 

• “This is what we call love. When you are loved, you can do anything in creation. When you are loved, there's no need at all to understand what's happening, because everything happens within you.” 

• “People are capable, at any time in their lives, of doing what they dream of.” 

• “I don’t live in either my past or my future. I’m interested only in the present. If you can concentrate always on the present, you’ll be a happy man. Life will be a party for you, a grand festival, because life is the moment we’re living now.” 

•  “When each day is the same as the next, it’s because people fail to recognize the good things that happen in their lives every day that the sun rises.” 

• “The secret is here in the present. If you pay attention to the present, you can improve upon it. And, if you improve on the present, what comes later will also be better."

(Coelho, 1988)

Our subconscious takes everything in, whether it is television, lyrics from songs, news; this puts ideas of what kind of thoughts we are going to create...

Sometimes is good to take time to listen to ourselves, music with no words just sounds such as guitar, saxophone, nature such as a waterfall, all enhances my own ideas and inspirations...I think of what to create, how to make it and pursue it. 

I surround myself with what fulfils me with joy and dreams, indulge my sight with beautiful images of places to see, experiences to live, and even wooden natural things that inspire me to visit those places I desire.

Joy doesn't just come when we achieve dreams, joy is present in excitement involved in working towards it. 

Dream it, create it, love it and live it.

References:

Goodreads (2018) The alchemist quotes, [Online] Available at: https://www.google.com/search?q=the+alchemist+quotes&oq=the+alchemist+quotes&aqs=chrome.69i57j0l5.3512j0j8&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8 (Accessed: 14.12.2018).

Louise Hay. (2017). How To Love Yourself And Heal Your Life. [Online Video]. 5 May 2017. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Udlctgpi-U&t=2315s. [Accessed: 14 December 2018].

 Lucia Daou (2011) Mis cuadros [Online] Available at : https://www.facebook.com/ldaou1/media_set?set=a.418109065909&type=3 (Accessed: 14.12.2018)

Wise old sayings (2016) Karma sayings and quotes, Available at: http://www.wiseoldsayings.com/karma-quotes/ (Accessed: 14.12.2018).