Hi everyone,
My name is Kevin Naidu and I'd love to take a few moments to speak to self-love and bringing self-love in and how to do that.
Self-love was something I struggled with my entire life as well as self-worth.
I feel like they're both tied in together.
My journey to self-love started just over two years ago when I woke up and realized I didn't have any vision,
That I had lost my eyesight almost completely.
The first thing I wanted to do was react,
Was run,
Was hide,
Was not wanting to deal with it,
Not wanting to look at it.
Because I found it a lot easier just to run away.
I feel like so many of us struggle with this piece of self-love because of fear.
Fear of what others think,
Fear of judgment,
Fear of receiving that love for maybe the first time and not knowing how that's even going to feel.
How do I connect to myself?
How do I connect to my authentic self?
That place before the world got in the way.
All of us are connected through that heart space,
Coming from a place of unconditional love.
So as we start the journey into loving ourselves,
The most practical tool I found that helped me on my journey was starting an active,
Consistent practice of looking in the mirror and telling yourself you love yourself.
We use this word so often,
Love,
Throughout our day,
Throughout our interactions.
We have no issue saying it so effortlessly to others around.
But when it comes to us,
A lot of times we feel like running away.
We feel like playing it off as a joke.
We struggle with receiving our own love.
But how can we communicate and express that love to others in our life if we can't love ourselves first?
It doesn't work,
It has to work both ways.
It's an exchange of energy.
So within the mirror practice,
It might start difficult at the beginning,
But as each day goes by,
Notice how your heart opens and starts to receive that love.
While I was in the hospital for my stem cell treatment for my eyes,
Both my eyes were covered with bandages and I had my 40th birthday.
That was the day I started doing this mirror practice.
And I remember standing in front of that mirror,
Not being able to see anything because the bandages.
But it was the first time I was ever able to communicate to Kevin that I love myself,
That I am worthy,
That I am beautiful,
That I am loved for just being me.
As that practice started,
It showed me a lot of layers that was preventing me from loving myself.
It showed me the fear of judgment and how I place so much attention and worth on other people's opinions.
And it allowed me to start to strip away the veil of illusion and to start walking myself home to Kevin for the first time.
But this path to self-love,
We have to journey through forgiveness,
Through worthiness,
Through non-judgment.
So always remember to honor the wound,
Whatever may come up for you.
Be gentle with yourself.
Be compassionate with yourself.
And allow yourself to receive the love that's here for you,
That love that's your birthright,
Just like the power inside of you.
And a nice tool I like to use to keep myself present so I can keep the self-defeating thoughts away.
It's an active practice with my hands,
With a hand mudra connected and infused with an intention that states that everything starts with me.
So when you connect your thumb and your index,
You say,
Peace.
Then you go thumb to middle,
Begins.
Thumb to next finger,
With.
Thumb to pinky,
Me.
Peace begins with me.
Peace begins with me.
Peace begins with me.
Start to bring that into your day-to-day to keep yourself present,
Coinciding with your mirror practice of communicating that unconditional love that you have just for you,
Receiving it with an open,
Humble heart,
Receiving it in the greatest expression of you,
Allowing yourself to shine bright and to liberate your soul.
Because as we bring healing,
Forgiveness to ourselves,
We bring healing and forgiveness to the entire collective.
It's an active practice of self-love.
Be gentle with yourself today.
Be compassionate with yourself today.
And remember,
There is no mistakes.
Every detour on that path you take is a gift.
It's a teacher.
And when we can start to view it like that,
We can start to let go of old belief systems,
Self-defeating thoughts,
Allowing ourselves to be completely present every second of the day,
Seeing the beauty inside and outside of us,
Walking through the world,
Seeing all through the eyes of Creator,
Seeing all through the eyes of unconditional love.
Namaste.
