Love occurs on many levels; romantic love, love of family, platonic love. All are important and help to drive away negative emotion. But, before you can truly project and share your love of others, you must learn to love yourself. This first begins with acceptance of your own nature and embracing it; even the quirks of your personality that seem apart from the norm. After all, we are all unique! As humans, we often have a tendency to be harder on ourselves than others, especially those with a nature that strives for perfection.
When you find yourself chastising yourself, learn to stop and accept these flaws and construct them positively or use them to work organically towards improvement. Part of this improvement should be re-attuning yourself to listen to what your heart has to say; is what you are doing leading you on the right path or following expectations? Self-love occurs when you attend to your all needs, physical, mental, and spiritual/emotional, as well as that of those around you.
The more you are able to be truthful and love yourself, the more you are able to spread positive energy and love amongst others. Sharing love isn’t about the grand things; it is an investment in some time, thought and consideration. You may have a friend whom you rarely are able to see, but sustain contact through calls, online messaging or letters. Closer family members and loved ones of course require more time and thought, but the reward of shared love should be proportional. Love breeds love and so cultivating a circle of people that share positive energy is beneficial to you all.
By opening up your heart, first to yourself, and then to others will lead to a contented mind that is accepting of all and diminishes ill feeling. This will set you on the path to a happier, love-filled life.
Eleanor MayC is the author of the health and fitness blog, Green+Aquamarine.
Through yoga, she has started to embrace the wellness lifestyle. Her blog balances her interest in a healthy, active lifestyle and living in a sustainable, Earth-friendly way.
Head over to the blog for tips, recipes, reviews and more.
