Today the topic I want to offer you is self-love.
Self-love.
Self-love is the foundation for how we are with ourselves,
How we are with each other,
And how we are in the world.
So self-love is essential.
And there are so many parts of us that are wanting to be loved.
So with that I'd like to invite you to close your eyes.
Close your eyes and get comfortable.
If it feels good,
Let your spine belong.
And allow your shoulders to hang off of your spine,
Letting yourself feel supported.
It is loving to allow yourself to feel the support of your own body.
So just breathing,
Feeling the support of your breath.
And I'd like you to allow yourself to breathe in a way that is loving.
How can your breath be an offering of self-love?
Just notice,
Notice,
Notice how good it can feel to listen to your body and to do what feels good.
Yes,
This is loving yourself.
It can be very simple.
And yet so often,
We are all challenged by being loving with ourselves.
I know that I can find ways of looking for what's wrong,
Finding a problem,
Finding flaws and places that are apparently lacking.
And all of this is just a waste of time.
And all of this is just an old habit,
An old habit of the mind.
And habits can change with practice.
So right now,
We are practicing together,
Practicing approaching ourselves with love.
Just breathe and feel what it's like to approach yourself with love.
To approach yourself with love.
That's right.
Breathing and allowing your breath to support you in approaching yourself with love.
Take your time and simply feel what it's like.
Yes,
Feel what it's like to luxuriate in the warm,
Kind light of your own loving attention.
Just take a moment and let that warmth fill you up.
Love is intelligent and it knows exactly where to go.
Letting the light of your own self-love permeate and sink in to those crevices,
To those places where maybe you feel unworthy and unlovable.
Where you may be telling yourself a story of being loved.
Where you feel unworthy,
Unlovable.
Where you may be telling yourself a story of being not good enough.
And when you let the light of your own loving heart shine into those places,
Those places where maybe you feel broken,
These can heal.
Love heals and self-love is profound nourishment for every cell and fiber of your body and your being.
Just letting it echo backwards in time to when you were very,
Very small.
And perhaps even before you were born.
Letting the light of your own self-love heal your ancestral line all the way back.
Parents,
Grandparents,
Grandparents,
Great-grandparents,
And back and back.
Love can travel.
Love is not constrained by time and space.
You can trust that it will be there for you.
Love is not constrained by time and space.
You can trust love.
Trust your own self-love.
And then let this miraculous,
Mysterious,
Healing energy of self-love ripple forward in time to future moments as you age and possibly even future generations,
Future incarnations.
The way is graced with love so that as you walk into your future,
Into your life,
You're walking on a soft road made from self-love.
Imagining the softness under your feet,
Just like the earth after a good rain.
The softness supports you and you can trust it.
And the more you practice,
The more you love yourself,
The easier it becomes.
So that in any moment,
If a thought may arise,
A self-critical thought may arise.
Self-doubting thought,
Self-love can appear effortlessly.
A self-critical thought,
A self-doubting thought,
Self-love can appear effortlessly.
Saving you the time and the energy of going down those pathways into those dark places that we all have gone and we all go sometimes.
Just knowing that the way is graced with self-love,
With self-love.
So breathe it in.
Maybe resting a hand on your heart or somewhere that needs some self-love,
Some place that may be hurting or maybe tender.
You can let it know that love is here.
Love is here.
You
