How To Heal The World By Truly Loving Yourself

EarthHeartSkyWhat does it really mean when you hear someone say “I love myself”?  I would venture to guess that most people who say it don’t truly know what this means.  I believe that loving yourself happens when life puts you in situations that bring up the parts of you that you don’t like, and you are willing to be with those parts with compassion and mercy.  This is not what we usually do.   We meet them with fear, judgment, anger and resistance.  We want these uncomfortable parts to go away because we were never shown how to meet them with our heart. This resistance creates war inside of us, and I believe this is the reason there is so much pain and suffering on the planet.

A woman in one of my awakening groups travels all over the world.  She goes with a tour company that takes small groups off the beaten path where one can truly experience life.  On her recent trip to Guatemala City, they were taken into a garbage dump where 80,000 adults and children live in shanties, making their living by sifting through the garbage.  Some women have been trained to sell beautiful handmade bracelets and for every bracelet you buy, you keep a woman out of the garbage dump for 10 days.

When my friend came back from her trip, she gave us each a bracelet and shared her experience, Many times it was hard for her to speak through her tears because her heart had been so cracked open.  She would say over and over again, “What should I do?  Should I give them all my money?  Should I move there?  I don’t know what to do.”   I told her to listen to what was calling her, but to also know that the most powerful thing that all of us can do to help others is to fall in love with ourselves.  That is, fall in love with all the parts that we don’t like.  Why is that so powerful?  Because when we heal the war inside of us, we are healing the planet.

Stephen Levine, author and spiritual teacher, shared a story with me years ago about Carl the Chiropractor, an “alternative medicine guy” who had attended Stephen’s Conscious Living/Conscious Dying workshops back in the late 80’s and early 90’s.  He was just beginning to learn how to embody his own life when he was diagnosed with cancer.  Rather than being victim to it, his survival mechanism kicked in, and he tried every kind of alternative therapy there was.  When nothing worked, his doctors convinced him that surgery would be the only option, but it was not successful.  Then he heard about this amazing healer, and he went to see her, thinking that she would offer some kind of naturopathic treatment plan that would cure his cancer.  There was no treatment plan, at least the kind that Carl had expected.  The healer simply said to him, “Fall in love with you.”

Life is asking you to meet those parts of you that your mind thinks are broken, those parts that bring up your shame, your anger, your despair, your “no way out” place.   Know you are not alone in experiencing these dark and dense parts.  Be with them in your heart, not only for your own healing but for the healing of everyone on our beautiful planet.  For we have all taken on an unconscious mind that is based on fear and glued together with judgment and as you live from your heart instead, you become a healing presence in the world.

And, by the way, Carl learned how to fall in love with himself and three years later, his cancer was gone, he got married and had a child.  Love heals!

What parts of yourself bring up shame, anger or despair?  Can you hold those parts in your heart?  What does that feel like?


SF Source Awakening  Jan 20 2015

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