Just Love Yourself

Celebrate yourself; praise yourself; sing and dance to love yourself.

There’s a message that comes down to me repeatedly these days: “Just love myself.”

Many of us already know that there is no infinite love, the greatest love, where you yourself are left out. How can we love without condition or barrier if we don’t love ourselves? Love begins with ourselves.

When we can’t feel this, we may feel lonely and become more concerned with how much other people love us or with finding people to love. We may find ourselves begging for love, trading for love, or waiting for love.

If the love we hope for from outside of ourselves doesn’t come, we may think, “I’m unhappy.” The brain gets shocked then by that thought. “My master is telling me that she’s unhappy,” the brain judges. “So I have to start being unhappy.” Then thoughts and energy that make us unhappy come from the brain, and our lives gradually become more and more unhappy.

But when we really love ourselves, we discover that we don’t need to beg or wait for love from others. We know that love isn’t something that comes from somewhere distant or from the person next to us. It’s already inside us, not something we wait for.

We also realize that our unknowable loneliness, fear, different forms of victim consciousness, emotions, and attachments were all illusions and obstacles in the path of our lives. Many people live having lost themselves in these illusions, so they think that they are powerless and inadequate. They don’t feel they are worth loving.

How to Love Ourselves

If we want to truly love ourselves, we need to let go of our preconceptions and attachments and let our hearts and minds be truly free. Underneath all those illusions lies love, for love is what we truly are.

To wipe away this false picture, we don’t need to fight it; just accept it instead. Loving ourselves means loving our dreams, our shortcomings, our struggles, even the part of us that shakes from fear and failure. No reasons or conditions are needed to love ourselves.

Once we accept ourselves unconditionally, the next step to loving ourselves is celebrating and praising ourselves—even bragging about ourselves. Give our brains positive information about ourselves.

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We can do this by giving ourselves compliments, or by clearing our thoughts and emotions with breathing and meditation. Another of the simple ways we can celebrate and praise ourselves is through dance and song.

Rather than doing dances and songs that were made by someone else, it’s better to make up your own. Dance and sing without learning or thinking as an outpouring of your heart, as an expression of love for and pride in yourself. It’s alright to sing nonsense or even out of tune. It’s fine as long as you feel good. Just enjoy it.

Our confidence will come alive once we’ve celebrated and praised ourselves enough, and that will lead to feeling better, being healthier, and our capabilities being expressed. Those who actively create love for themselves this way instead of waiting for it also create happiness for themselves. Loving ourselves leads to more brightness, harmony, and balance within ourselves. Soon our outer lives will come to reflect the brightness and love inside.

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