Self-Love is looking after yourself with the Loving Kindness of God
SELF LOVE NOW excerpt from author Bridget Finklaire
I was baffled by the question at first. I’m all about love. My whole life is about love: Family love for my children, romantic love for my husband, love for this beautiful planet, love for my friends and the Loving Kindness of Spiritual, Universal Love. The Love of God.
But Self Love? Oh my word!
I’ve been pretty bad at that over the years. I love to help others. Writing this is a service to Simon and to those who read the book. It’s my gift…to others. But what of my gift to self?
I’m still recovering from burnout. I push myself to exercise and I beat myself up for eating chocolate. I can’t say no to friends and acquaintances, even when inside I just want a long, hot bath and an early night.
I’m a giver. I like to serve and do for others but what I do for myself is woeful.
For many self-aware, awakened souls on the path of expanding consciousness, Self Love is the last frontier. After you’ve exhausted yourself loving everyone and everything else, you come to realise the value of Self Love.
It took years for the penny to drop: Self Love is not selfishness. Self Love doesn’t mean always putting yourself first. It’s not even self-will. So, what is it? I had to dig deep.
It’s looking after yourself with the Loving Kindness of God. The loving kindness with which you’d look after others.
I’m going to stop beating myself up for not attaining somebody else’s standard of perfection or beauty. All is in Divine Perfection and Beauty.
When we look after our own needs through Self Love and self-responsibility, we stand autonomous. Without jealousy, without fear, without anger without war. We no longer blame others for our demise. When our own needs are met, we can go on to give to others. When we look after ourselves, we don’t turn to loved ones to prop us up. We’re beings of Love, within and without.
When each of us has mastered loving the world, others and ourselves, then humanity will be in much better shape.
“Charity begins at home,” so the saying goes. Love begins at home, too. Start with Self Love and build outwards. We might just wipe out jealousy, hatred, fear and depression in the process. If we’re going to work in fellowship, collectively as one race — The Human Race — then we need to start loving ourselves as well as others. Loving ourselves, doesn’t mean pretending it’s all good. It means accepting our perceived flaws and loving ourselves in spite of them. It means forgiving ourselves. We’re human, after all.
Come to a place of acceptance, warts and all.
Then focus on what you have that’s good. As the old song goes, “Accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative and don’t mess with Mr In-between”.
Living In The Gift:
The digital version of this book can be downloaded in the spirit of the Gift culture. Which means you decide the value your heart wants to gift to mine.
So if you have enjoyed reading this excerpt, find the whole book at SelfLoveNow.org and please love it forward…
And if you are LOVING my offerings you can also support me by becoming a monthly contributor or send a one of Gift that feels true in your heart. It requires a lot of time/energy to produce and distrubute and your support is greatly received. No matter the amount, all contributions support me to continue sharing and living in the Gift culture.
During a ‘sharing circle’ Simon invited a spontaneous question; “Why is Self Love so important today?”. He was profoundly moved by the answers of those in the circle, so much so that over time that movement continued to birth an idea of a book of 54 diversely selected co-creators expressing their individual answers to the same broad and important universal question. Now you have the wisdom of these divine beings all in one place. Notice anyone you know? — Enjoy xxx
