Love of the Self: The Highest Calling
In this month when we collectively celebrate love, our primary focus is the love we have for another or others. Our connections to our loved ones are vitally important, and we are blessed to have the love of those for whom we care in our lives. With this external focus, however, it is easy to neglect or ignore what the Angelic Guides call the Highest Calling—Love of the self. Rarely have we been told or taught that Love of the self is necessary and significant. The concept and practice of loving the Self are largely absent from our cultural and societal modeling and ideals. Because we have chosen to forget who we Truly Are, we are susceptible to the ideas and beliefs that our cultures and societies present to us. The necessity of loving the self is missing from cultural and idealogical discourse, and thus we have taken on the programming that it is selfish to place primary emphasis on the self. This is contrary to what Source truly wants for us. As the Angelic Guides explain, “…to love ourselves, remember the love we have for ourselves is the highest calling we have.”
Struggle with and lack of love for the self are challenges many of us confront. Not loving the self is at the root of much of the suffering we experience, in our own lives and within the world at large. Lack of love for the self blocks our ability to receive because it goes hand-in-hand with beliefs in unworthiness. It also impedes creativity, limits our ability to live in joy, keeps us from aligning with our higher purpose and Selves, delays our growth and evolution and hinders our ability to fully love others.We cannot truly love others if we do not love ourselves first. Not loving the self reinforces the separation and division currently present in this world. It is also a primary contributing factor to the separation from our True Selves that we experience in this dense reality.
The challenges we have expressing and experiencing love for the self originate from our identification with the lower or lesser self—the self that holds all of our fears, wounds, limiting beliefs and false perceptions (the ego). It is difficult to love a self we view as flawed, limited and even wrong. Identification with this self is a false perception and one that blocks us from our inherent Divinity and magnificence. We are not the limited selves we have believed ourselves to be. We are Divine Beings who are expressing and experiencing through human forms. It is in our True Nature to love unconditionally, and to love All, including ourselves.
Lack of love for or not loving the self goes against our True Nature. As Divine Beings who are Created from and with the Love of Source, our ability to love is unlimited. When we understand ourselves as this Love, we open to who we Truly Are and to increased ability to love all aspects of ourselves, as well as to greater ease, joy, purpose and contentment. Love of the self is the main ingredient in becoming and being who we Truly Are.
Love of the self can seem a daunting process when we identify and operate as the lesser self. Shifting the lens through which we identify onto the Truth of who we Are is be the beginning of returning to love for the self and embracing and embodying this Love. Like all things related to growth, learning to love the self can be a process. We need to take steps to show and give love to ourselves so that we become habituated to this. As we move through our growth, we will become more comfortable with and adept at loving the self. This Valentine’s Day, give love to yourself. Do at least one thing that honors you and the Love you Truly Are. Buy fresh flowers, have coffee with a friend, sleep in, spend time doing something only for you, hug yourself, tell yourself that you Are Love and that you love you.
It is my hope that we all learn to love, respect and honor ourselves. We can then more fully and deeply share love with and for all others. Accepting, embracing and Loving the self is is the path to Unity and Oneness. Let the words of the Angelic Guides inspire your path to self-love. It is the greatest gift you can give yourself and others.
“…love of the self—in this many of us lack balance. This can be a hard thing for us to understand. While we may think that it would be easier to care for the self, for most of us it is not. For example, when you are learning from your parents how the world works or operates, you come to understand that caring for other people is more important, has more emphasis placed upon it than loving, being loving to the self. This is the reverse order of things, the opposite of how we should approach others and ourselves. Of course We are not saying that to love others, respect them is not important—of course it is. But We are saying that we cannot fully appreciate others, give them the care they need until one knows how to care for, love the self. We have this innate ability within us when we are formed from the Creator’s Light. We understand that we are Beings of Love and Light as are all others. If we are all Beings of Light, we must have the same significance as all others, and because we are all Love, all created from Love, our essential selves are fully of this ‘matter,’ this Love. If we are created from Love, then to love ourselves, remember the love we have for ourselves is the highest calling we have. What happens when we incarnate is that we forget about this Love. It does not leave us or become less; It is hidden from view. The way the human world works causes further confusion and despair. We are taught to feel guilty if we are to love ourselves, or show love to ourselves. This is considered to be selfish and is an unfortunate manifestation of how the world works. To care for the self, and to care for the self above all others, is neither selfish nor wrong nor to be labeled in any other such way. Care and love for the self are the highest things we can give to ourselves.
“Without the experience of understanding self-love, how is it possible to give, show love to another human being? We need to understand the essential components of love, all that needs to be expressed and brought to the fore when we love another. Without loving the self, one cannot understand how to give these things to another/others. When we neglect or forget to love the self, we are losing touch with our Divine nature and our Light. Source does not wish this for us. It is the greatest pleasure, or desire of Source for us to love ourselves. After all, we are the product of Love, Source’s unique and abiding Love for each of us. We are Source’s beloved creations, the Hearts of His/Her Heart! We are encouraged to find this love for ourselves so that we may know, really know, the Love of which we are made, the deep and true Love that Source has for each of us. To love the self is not selfish—it is the highest expression of what Source wants for us—to feel the Love He/She has for us in our own hearts and minds. To believe in this Love, know this Love and really feel this Love is what Source wants most for us. This is the True purpose, the highest calling.
“When you were young, a small child, you saw that your parents put emphasis on this other rather than themselves. The father was deeply involved in his work, and the mother was centered on raising the family. When did they stop to care for themselves? In this We do not mean when did they eat, etc., but when did they stop and decide to show themselves love and care? Do you remember seeing examples of this?”
No, I do not. They were focused on work and family.
“Many people misinterpret this kind of focus as self-caring, but it is not about the self. Rather, it is about the things one must do to get along in the world, to fulfill one’s personal goals, etc. These things are necessary and important, but they do not indicate true love for the self. By seeing this ‘approach,’ you, like many others, learned that what society calls us to do is the most important thing, the highest standard to which we must hold. This teaches us nothing about the absolute significance of the self. To see this and be taught that the self is not “deserving” of a special kind of love, sends the wrong message to the child. This is the message you received…The birth family provided a means by which you were able to familiarize yourself with what are perceived as the most fundamental requirements of a human being—the constant search for what matters most in a societal fashion—what others decide to be the priority or focus. The self is left out of this equation. Do we ever see others putting their full or primary emphasis on loving themselves? This is something that is not valued, not appreciated or highly regarded within human societies. When the self is left out of the equation, it is the self and Source who suffer. Source does not want for us to leave ourselves to where we might or are inclined to—at the ‘bottom of the list’ so to speak. Source wants for us to put ourselves at the top of this list, the absolute and first priority each of us should have. Source is not attempting to dictate to us how we should be. That is something each of us is allowed to choose, decide upon for ourselves. But Source wants for us to understand the importance, the absolute importance of loving the self, of fully and truly being capable of loving the self. We are each called to learn this, attempt to carry this out. It can be a daunting process when there are no or few societal examples of how to love the self. Because of this lack of modeling, of others serving as examples, we must find for ourselves our own ability to love ourselves, our full selves. When you ‘neglect’ the self, it is easy for you to forget the nature of who you Truly Are.”