The Only Commandment this Valentine Day: Love Yourself

This post is a continuation of ideas I started exploring from Osho’s Love, Freedom and Aloneness book…

There is an belief that it’s better to give then to receive, it’s better to sacrifice yourself for the good of others, your country, your family or your children. Osho says this is a lie, a blatant lie. The priests and the politicians have held against you from the beginning of time. Even the Oracle at Delphi saying, ?Know Thyself? got it wrong because how can you even begin to know yourself if you do not love yourself? Dr John Gray said in the movie, The Secret, you have to give more to yourself, so that you can begin to overflow, and then you share with others.

When you do not love yourself it’s nothing more than avoiding yourself. Everything you do, watching television, listening to the radio, socialising, working, lovemaking, is all escaping from yourself. So how do you begin to get in touch with that part of you that you have been denying or ignoring? One way is to bring to the conscious mind those good things that you know others see in you, and you see in yourself from time to time. Do the following exercise and share the results with me by posting a comment below.

EXERCISE
Take 4 minutes, 2 each, and tell the person next to you what you like about yourself and why.

Does this sound selfish? Yes, it does sound selfish but have you ever thought of the virtues of selfishness? I say to you that you cannot love others if you do not love yourself. And in fact how much others you, is directly proportional to the how much you love yourself. This may sound like a contradiction but when you sit in silence, and when you realise how magnificent you are, a reflection of divinity, that is when you wake-up from the dream we call existence.

Often you will believe there are qualities in others, that you are attracted to. You think they have certain traits and characteristics, which you deny in yourself. And when you do this again you are condemning yourself as not being good enough. You are all you got in this moment. You are the alpha and the omega in this moment.

When you realise it is not about giving away your love (power) to others and instead it’s about being true to yourself. Only at this point does your love begin to overflow so that you can share it with others. Have you ever considered the advice given by cabin crew on a flight? The normally say, ?In event of an emergency, place the oxygen mask on yourself first, even before you help the granny or the child next to you…? This is because you can only, truly help others or love others, when you love or once you’ve helped yourself.

Tips For How To Love Yourself:

• Ask for a list of things people like about you.
• Make a list of the things you like about yourself.
• Make it part of your daily routine to praise something in yourself or think about something you like about yourself.
• Make a note every time someone says something nice about you.
• Have compassion for yourself or just be nice to yourself more often.
• Use Affirmations like ?Even though I’m overweight I still love and accept myself” which I learned studying Emotional Freedom Technique.

And you can read-up on more self-love tips here. The purpose of this is that you can only love or like people in proportion to how much you like or love yourself. Don’t be fooled by the bullshit from society. Every time you put yourself down you are draining your self-worth, which makes you less and less attractive. Since it’s Valentine’s Day 2008 I’ll recommend a very silly movie called 20 Dates, where one man goes on a quest for love.

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Tags: 20 dates, osho, valentines-day