Loving ourselves is one of the most important things you can do for your own personal development. Why? Because love is the most vital nourishment you can receive and most of us are sadly lacking in it.
Our need for love is a primal prerequisite for survival. It’s been like that since your arrival on the planet. Newborns can be fed all kinds of nutrient-rich food, but without love, they get a medical condition called “failure to thrive.” To do well, we all need copious amounts of food from the heart. Nothing else comes close to it. As babies, we have to rely on the adults around us to fulfill this need, but as adults, loving ourselves is something we can do and when we do, we thrive.
Four reasons loving ourselves is so important.
- When we love ourselves, we are taking care of one of our core needs. This gives us a sense of personal sovereignty. This will not only make us more attractive to others, it frees up the people around us to not feel required to love us. They can then love us, not because it’s demanded of them, but because they want to.
- People who love themselves usually radiate a warm energy that’s very appealing to be around. They usually have a glow. We find ourselves wanting to be near them, as you might want to be around a warm fire.
- Loving ourselves opens our hearts. When our hearts are open, it’s easier to feel connected to others and feel compassionate towards them. Even if those others are different in some ways from us, our open hearts help us to know that other people want the same things we want. Like us, they want to be happy. Like us, they want to be healthy. To be loved. Really, we are all same—vulnerable hearts beating with aspirations for a good life.
- Lastly, it is my believe that our human hearts are connected to the great cosmic heart. Whatever you call this spiritual energy, this huge heart floods its beneficence through the universe, making the sun shine and the flowers grow. When we open our hearts and love ourselves, we usually feel connected to this huge love. When this connection is strong, we know we can relax because we are aware that we are floating in a vast ocean of beneficence. How wonderful is that.
Want to open your heart?
Here are two resources. The first is from Louise Hay who was one of first people to talk extensively about self-love. The second is a little book called, Love Yourself Like Your Life Depended On It by Kamal Ravikant, which tells abou his own journey to love himself. It’s a short but poignant read.
Speaking of books, I also have a section in my new book, Find Your Inner Gold, 21 Powerful Tools to Bring Back Your Shine, but, because I’m committed to your personal growth and there’s no time like that present, I want to offer you a short exercise you can do right now that will help to open your heart. We are so used to working from our heads, that we often forget about the heart, but this exericse can be very powerful.
Put your hand on your over heart right now and just breathe into it for a few moments. The heart often has a lot of say, so you may experience some feelings as you do this. If so, just let that be. Just keep breathing and feeling this amazing electromagnetic field that lives in your chest. It’s dozens of times more powerful that anything above your shoulders.
Now, see if you can connect your own heart to the huge heart of the cosmos. Feel that spiritual heart cascading lovingness into you, filling you with warm loving kindness. Let yourself float in the ocean of it for a while.
Feel any different?
I thought so.