self loveWhen I look around me it often seems like love, or the lack of it, strongly motivates every single thing we do on this planet.

Love is at the core of everything and love of self in particular leads us to create lives full of opportunities and positive relationships, follow creative endeavours, and actively seek ways to make this world a better place.

A lack of self-love takes us down the road to self-destruction where we seek toxic relationships, disrespect our bodies, turn away from others and become people we don’t in our hearts to wish to be.

Love of self brings us closer to divine joy but its lack pushes us further away.

We seek others to fill the holes within ourselves. We think, ‘If I’m just with that person I will feel better.’ But it doesn’t work because you must love yourself first before you can ever truly love another.

When you lack self-love you will seek unhealthy relationships with people who don’t lift you up and do not help you to see the spectacular uniqueness of you. And in those situations you (and others who care about you) will blame that person for dragging you down. But the other person is only reflecting how you feel about yourself.

Other times you might find someone who sees your capacity for great love. They will want you to be all you can be in this life. But too often you will run from them because you do not believe you deserve that kind of love. After all, you do not love yourself so how could they love you.

Lack of self-love destroys what we want most in the world.

Loving yourself means trusting your inner guidance. But so many of us haven’t been taught how to do that and we distrust ourselves completely. But loving yourself is the first step towards understanding who you truly are at your core and from there your inner knowing grows exponentially.

Knowing yourself can be challenging because your inner guidance will tell you to do what you believe is right for you and this self-love will encourage you to seek paths that are not always in alignment with what other people want. It may ask you to live your life the way you choose and not as your family, friends or culture may dictate. It will challenge you to break down every false barrier you ever put in place and urge you on when others tell you to give up.

Self-love and the inner knowing that comes with it, will lead you to reach for opportunities and force you far your comfort zone where you are restricted by what has been rather than what is possible. It will nourish you and help you to keep going when you feel like you’ve lost your way.

Self-love will lead you to trust yourself and your own judgement. It will ultimately lead you to the strongest and most reliable love of your life, the love you have for yourself.