The Importance of Self-Love

Love

Living Love

Living love is loving yourself first, so that you can love others.
It’s taking care of yourself, so that you can help take care of others. It’s doing those things that are good for you, so that you’ll be happy, healthy, and a joy to be with. Love is everywhere when there is loving in you.

– John-Roger, DSS

Ahhh… Self-Love

I remember one time I had a counseling session with John-Morton, one of my spiritual teachers.

John mentioned something that was extremely useful.

I was sobbing because I’d been struggling with a relationship, I was “fixing myself” and over-giving everywhere to find some level of self-approval or outer approval. Yikes!

He said to me something very much like:

Your commandment is take care of yourself. If you never get around to taking others, yet you took care of yourself, you’ve fulfilled God’s commandment…

It was so strange for me to hear him talk like that- of “commandments” and so biblical-sounding that it REALLY caught my attention.

I went back to check from my catholic memory rolodex to see if that was indeed one of the commandments- and thought, well, perhaps Moses fell behind and didn’t transcribe that one…(LOL).

Anyway, it made an IMPRESSION on my consciousness (to say the least) and shifted pretty much how I went about doing everything for myself.

The new awareness

  • It was such a RELEIF to KNOW that by simply taking care of myself, I WOULD BE LIVING MY BEST LIFE!
  • I mean, with all the outer chatter on “showing up in bigger ways in the world” if you truly are an “achiever” or a “change-maker”, HOW RADICALLY DIFFERENT WOULD IT BE TO FULFILL MY SPIRITUAL DESTINY AND PLAY MY BIGGEST, BRIGHTEST, BOLDEST GAME BY SIMPLY TAKING CARE OF MYSELF?!
  • And then and only then, go out into the world…

It was very liberating!

So today, when I saw this quote in my inbox, I just knew it was important to share it along with my experience in case it resonates with you. Enjoy, :

Living love is loving yourself first, so that you can love others.
It’s taking care of yourself, so that you can help take care of others. It’s doing those things that are good for you, so that you’ll be happy, healthy, and a joy to be with. Love is everywhere when there is loving in you.

– John-Roger, DSS

May your days and lives be full of LIVING LOVE! xoxo