Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/tinybuddha/~3/0yoAhvRMFBM/
“You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love & affection.” ~Buddha
Someone asked me a couple of years ago, out of ten how much to did I love myself? I said four. I had to give my immediate, intuitive answer, as this was the honest truth.
Four! That came as a shock to me. It’s low. I thought I was pretty good with myself. I’m smart, multitalented, not bad looking, generally happy, I have lots of friends and enjoy life.
But now the truth began to shine. With introspection I could see why the answer was four. My thoughts, feelings, words, and actions showed how I really felt. What I thought was self-love was largely superficial gloss on the surface of my life.
What’s more, this lack of self-love was playing out in my life and keeping me from experiencing real joy and freedom.
My strict Indian upbringing had me believe that my job was to conform to other people’s rules, from how I dressed and socialized down to whom I would marry. My true self had no place here; it was to be hidden away. But it never goes away; it’s always there waiting to be loved and accepted by us.
Below are some of the areas I was lacking in self-love, which perhaps you can relate to. Taking conscious action to increase our self-love in these a…