Self Love
This is my primary purpose as an acupuncturist - to help my patients find their own path to self-love.
What does this mean? It seems like a very personal interpretation so I will only share my own here. Self-love is inspiring me right now. Self-love is allowing me to love others unconditionally. Self-love is my path to forgiveness. I deeply believe that self-love is the path to enlightenment.
Who enters this world holding space for self-love? Every single one of us. Every single tiny baby is the embodiment of self-love. Just being. Exploring ones own senses. Living only in the present moment. Completely dependent on another person for protection, food, warmth, safety. And never once questioning whether or not they are deserving of these things.
I don’t believe that this seed of self-love ever leaves us; it seems as if it is just covered up. It is like a seed buried deep in the earth. It could use the soil piled on top of it as nourishment to bloom but instead, most humans don’t take the time or have the awareness for cultivation of the seed. Instead, we just keep piling soil on top, covering this seed too deeply to ever bloom.
The soil includes hardships from childhood, could be a result of parental neglect, abuse, berating or even bullying from peers. Although we look at these things as negative, to a certain extent these things can ultimately be viewed as soil to help nourish the seed of self-love.
When someone berates or bullies you, it takes self-love to stand up for yourself. It takes self-love as an adult to seek out the therapy or support to mend these wounds from childhood.
As we heal and learn to stand up for ourselves, the self-love is amplified. It grows, blooming into a wonderful beautiful human. If we continue piling soil on top of ourselves throughout life, the seed just becomes further buried. We begin to throw soil at others, feeling victimized because our seed wasn’t allowed to grow, when it is really ourselves who continue the process of burying the seed.
It is time for us all to step into a place of power, a place of responsibility for this seed of self-love within us. Let’s dig away some of this soil. And let’s have patience with this process. We aren’t able to bring an excavator in because this might sweep the seed away with it. We have to slowly chip away at it, like an archeological dig. Slowly and lovingly looking for the seed so that we can cultivate and nourish it.
And when the seed of self-love within us starts to grow and bloom, it won’t matter when we are “insulted” by another human.
The heart is full and can look toward that person from a place of compassion rather than feeling the need to protect.
When the heart is full, humans won’t feel the need to fill the void with material objects, alcohol, drugs, food, money, etc. There will be more compassion for self and therefore compassion for others.