The other day, while talking to my friend Guillermo about various transcendental topics, he argued that human beings DO NOT love themselves.
In other words, he said that loving yourself was a very difficult task to achieve. Why? Mostly, due to many reasons, such as the fact that we always have doubts about ourselves, and although we want to love ourselves; many times, unexpected things come up that bring us down, and the trust and love we have for ourselves collapse.
Then, he asked me: Edgar, do you love yourself? Maybe he thought my answer would’ve been a solid: Yes”.
However, my response was: I’m learning how to do it!
The true question should’ve been: Why is it so difficult to love yourself?
As I stated before, perhaps, due to a lack of security, trust, imposed conditions; and acquired relevant programming implanted by our parents, family members, teachers, social circles, society, social networks, etc.
At that precise moment, I had a very strong revelation. I remembered an anecdote I had with my mother, during the several months period I spent with her in Lima, Peru; before she passed away (this memory touched me very hard and took away a few tears from me while telling Guillermo the story.)
What happened? One night, I was talking to my mother and suddenly, I focused on her sweet and happy face. While staring at her, I exclaimed with extreme delight and certainty: Mother! How beautiful you are!!!
I see you as the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen!!
To which she replied: Don’t make fun of me! At my age? I am almost 93 years old. How can I be beautiful? maybe when I was much younger.
Again, with total certainty, I replied to her: Mom! I’m telling you the truth, I see you as beautiful as you can be. You are the most beautiful of all women.
The thing is, I was not lying, that’s how I saw and perceived my mom: ¡Bella!
The reason? I was seeing my mom with eyes of love. No one can take away from me what I saw in her and how I perceived her in that way. No one can tell me otherwise, because I saw my mother as a very beautiful being.
However, she didn’t believe me. No matter how much I reinforced and tried to convince her that she was beautiful and that I saw her that way. At that time, I did not achieve my goal.
Why so? Perhaps she got herself trapped in her limitations, old programming, and probably the sense of physical beauty that she acquired during her lifetime.
Now, my question to you is: In the past, have you ever fallen in love with someone (man or woman, according to the case) and seen that person very beautiful? However, your friends and/or family members thought otherwise and kept asking themselves: What could you have possibly seen in that person?
What happened was very simple. At that historical moment in time, you looked at that person, with eyes of love. You were probably in love. When you look at someone, with eyes of love. You always see that person as beautiful as he/she can be.
The next question comes up: How to look at yourself or someone else with eyes of love?
If you are curious about how to achieve this, let’s practice!
First, look at yourself in the mirror, without any filters, with all your flaws and imperfections you might have. Let’s do that for a few seconds; then, let’s bring to mind the feeling of love.
This feeling of love could be brought to you, either by thinking about the person you love or loved at one moment in time, by thinking about your beloved pet (if you have and/or had one), or by bringing to your memory something beautiful that made you very happy at some point in life.
Furthermore, once you reach out that feeling of love in your being. Immediately, let’s look at yourself in the mirror, again.
Do you notice the difference? Do you realize how different you perceive yourself, when you look at the mirror with the eyes of love?
Finally, I highly encourage you to repeat this exercise as frequently as possible; especially when you feel down, given up, not worthy, with the feeling that you can’t accomplish anything. At that moment, see yourself with the eyes of love and notice the difference.
This entire experience was a breakthrough for me. I became aware that perhaps one of the greatest life lessons we have in this world/planet is learning or remembering how to love ourselves.
You need to remember how to love yourself.
I need to remember how to love myself, again.
Do you have any comments about this experience? I am waiting for them…
