The human condition is constantly in search of love and society has taught us to look for it outside of ourselves, e.g. buying a home or a new car, starting a career or going on an expensive world trip. While new experiences serve to raise our vibration and provide us with growth, they only form part of our overall contentment and long term satisfaction.
The law of attraction dictates that like energy attracts like energy. Therefore logically, in order to attract love into our life, love must already exist; think of a magnet!
Cultivating self-love is the key to manifesting loving relationships into our reality. We seem to struggle with the issue of self-love and in fact, many who are seeking a love relationship are doing so with much vigour because they can feel a void within themselves. This feeling within can be indicative of a belief in a lack of love. So again thinking of a magnet, it would be challenging to attract a satisfying, healthy, loving relationship from a place of feeling unloved and empty.
Self-love is the most important kind of love. It is only through loving theself that we are able to have anything worth giving to another. Someone who does not love themselves, who judges or criticises themselves harshly will tend to do the same to others. It all begins with the self. We become capable of loving others and giving freely of our energy when we come from a place of self-love and compassion.
So what does self-love actually mean? It means honouring and understandingthe unique and individualised aspects of who you are. It means taking the time to get to know and accepting all parts of yourself; that you will make mistakes and that you can forgive yourself for messing up!
The good news is, the path to cultivating self-love begins the moment we make the choice to. It really is that simple!
One exercise I use in my own journey of self-love is this: when I am judging myself a bit too harshly, I step back and view and observe myself as a young child. Then I imagine myself as the most loving, kind and understanding parent a child could have and then talk to my 'child-self' about the issue.
Imagine as a parent, how would you convey your love and support to your inner child? This is only one way to cultivate self-love. There are many others. Itbegins with making a choice on a daily basis to be kind to yourself so you can then be kind to others. Focus on how your feel about yourself first.
Once you begin to treat yourself with more respect and compassion, watchas the world and all your relationships reflect this back to you abundantly! Manifesting love into our life is something we can donaturally once we start to radiate the love we have for our own self.