Mary O’Malley – In many places in the world February 14th is Valentine’s Day, a day where we show our love to the people we deeply care for.
While it is wonderful to express our love, there is one person we have a tendency to leave out of the equation – ourselves! We have been conditioned instead to search for love ‘out there,’ hoping to find the person who will love us unconditionally. And while loving and being loved by another person is one of the most nourishing things a human being can know, we have all discovered it can be a roller coaster ride.
Also, if you listen closely, you will discover that romantic love it isn’t where you discover true and lasting love. The kind of love you truly long for is found inside of you as you discover how to meet yourself in our own heart.
So, with Valentine’s Day near, I would like to offer a radical shift of perception…you are the beloved you have been waiting for!
It is one of our deepest and most secret longings – to fall in love with ourselves as we are – warts and all! In other words, to have a love affair with ourselves!
What would it be like if, during this Valentine’s week, you thought of everything you wanted to hear from your parents, your mate, your boy/girlfriend and then said them to yourself?
What would it be like to imagine something you long for from another person and then give it to yourself?
What would it be like today if you looked in your eyes in the mirror and told yourself, “I love you exactly as you are?”
Be gentle with this. We all have lots of stories in our head about how unlovable and unacceptable we are. The stories inside of you that lock you out of your own heart are just stories you learned when you were young, and they aren’t true. I know, your mind will try to convince you otherwise. But the truth is you have just forgotten how unique, beautiful and necessary you are! You are one of a kind and you are perfectly imperfect like all of us.
I invite you, for just this day, to allow yourself to be your own beloved!
SF Source Mary O’Malley Feb 2019