Loving Myself is the Key to Loving Others

In his breath-taking book Many Lives, Many Masters, Dr. Brian Weiss M.D. (a renowned and highly reputable psychiatrist) said, "The steady day-in and day-out pounding of undermining influences such as a parent’s scathing criticisms, could cause even more psychological trauma than a single traumatic event. These damaging influences, because they blend into the everyday background of our lives, are even more difficult to  remember and exorcise.

A constantly criticized child can lose as much confidence and self-esteem as one who remembers being humiliated on one particular, horrifying day. A child whose family is impoverished and has very little food available on a day-to-day basis might eventually suffer from the same psychological problems as a child who experienced one major episode of accidental near-starvation. Those day-in and day-out poundings of negative forces have to be recognized and resolved with as much attention as that paid to the single overwhelmingly traumatic event."

I loved what Dr. Weiss said and I’ve realized, because of my daily attention to Nelly my inner child, I've been able to neutralize the day-in and day-out poundings of the past by becoming aware of her against the background of my daily life that’s going on now. When we shine our attention daily on the inner child, and confront negative feelings in the moment, 

using love, understanding and compassion, we can almost be like our own psychologist helping ourselves to remember and exorcise the source of negative experiences from the past.

Loving yourself is NOT a selfish notion!

At first, it was very hard for me to accept the concept of “loving myself.” It just sounded wrong! It seemed like such a selfish notion. I'd recall my mother who was constantly saying, "Don't be selfish!" when all I was doing was being a child immersed in my joy of any given moment. The thought of being selfish would always send me off into thinking about people I know who are self-centered, self-serving, “into” themselves and egotistical and I didn’t like those who came to mind and certainly didn’t want to be like them. So I looked up the word selfish in my synonym finder and it gave words like greedy, materialistic, covetous, hoggish, hoarding, grabby, possessive, stingy and such. Yikes those words describe behavior I don’t ever want to have and being selfish in those ways really doesn’t have anything to do with love. 

So with the help of several spiritual teachers, I cautiously stuck my big toe in this pool of love that we all have inside of us and surrounding us, and over time I waded in up to my neck and then I just took a big breath and went in all the way!

Now you know how it goes when the water is cold but you want to go in swimming and you diddle around inching in up to your knees, then your waist instead of just diving in. Why do we do that? Once we’re in and swimming around we yell out to the other chickens on the shore, “Come on in, it’s wonderful!”

That’s all I have to say about loving yourself, “Come on in, it’s wonderful!” I have fallen madly in love with myself and it has been in that love that I see us all as one so I can’t help being madly in love with you too! By loving myself I didn’t become selfish, I just became more loving.

I received this email today from one of my subscribers. She said,

It’s all about love. Thank goodness we’ve been given a second chance to neutralize the poundings of the past. It’s time to dive in the pool of love that’s waiting. It’s wonderful!

Love,

P.S. My latest book, The JOY of Being Disorganized, is loaded with tips, hints and assignments that will help you find Peace and Joy RIGHT WHERE YOU ARE RIGHT NOW.