Sunday, June 04, 2017
Love Yourself First
By Donovan Baldwin
Most of us have been told since childhood to love our neighbors. We are told that by parents we usually love. We grow up and fall in love, love our girl friend, boy friend, friend-friend, get married, love our partner, and love our children.
We "love" our pets, our homes, our jobs (maybe), our country, city, neighborhood.
To look at the world, it might be assumed we love everybody...except "them", of course.
Who are "them"?
Those others, usually not like us somehow, which for some reason, which we often do not know, we are not supposed to love.
But, all of that's another topic.
I want to ask, "Who loves you?"
More specifically, "Do YOU love you?"
It has been said you cannot dip from an empty well. The implication here being that, if you do not love yourself, how will you have love to share with others?
I know that most of us can "fake it", including love, often because we really do love the person, it's just that we don't feel it somehow.
Maybe a start is to love yourself.
I know that when it comes to love and other feelings, we cannot simply tell others, or ourselves, "Feel like this...", whatever "this" is.
However, you can try to be the sort of person you would love to love. You can do things for yourself, the things you would do for someone you love.
You ARE worth love, you know, but, you may have to show others that you are, before they can feel it. One thing you can do is love them first.
We "love" our pets, our homes, our jobs (maybe), our country, city, neighborhood.
To look at the world, it might be assumed we love everybody...except "them", of course.
Who are "them"?
Those others, usually not like us somehow, which for some reason, which we often do not know, we are not supposed to love.
But, all of that's another topic.
I want to ask, "Who loves you?"
More specifically, "Do YOU love you?"
It has been said you cannot dip from an empty well. The implication here being that, if you do not love yourself, how will you have love to share with others?
I know that most of us can "fake it", including love, often because we really do love the person, it's just that we don't feel it somehow.
Maybe a start is to love yourself.
I know that when it comes to love and other feelings, we cannot simply tell others, or ourselves, "Feel like this...", whatever "this" is.
However, you can try to be the sort of person you would love to love. You can do things for yourself, the things you would do for someone you love.
You ARE worth love, you know, but, you may have to show others that you are, before they can feel it. One thing you can do is love them first.
Labels: article by Donovan Baldwin, love, love yourself
