Power of Loving Oneself
Have you ever wondered why people run after and crave true love? Why people try to look for love in others? Why people who fall madly in love forget the world and end up doing mistakes? Well! This answer can be very difficult because everyone may find different meanings of love, may have different perspectives of love. But if one just stops, even for once, this never-ending chase and tries to find some time to look within, one may actually realize, the search can end here and true love can be found just by loving oneself.
Well, these kinds of thoughts can be easily parked sideways by whoever is reading this, saying “Oh common ! I do not want to become a saint now!”. But believe me, the way this world is moving with such speed, the direction our lives are taking with just materialistic objects all around, a day will come in each and everyone’s lives when we will stop and question ourselves “What are we actually doing? What we want next? Where next?” And that will be the day when we start looking at ourselves, into our inner space.
Now loving oneself is not easy. It can in fact be the toughest thing. And so I call it a “POWER”. The art or science of loving oneself is nothing but power and it is very divine and very beautiful. It can be so strong that even if we acquire a small percentage of it, we can actually see the changes in our lives. It will lift us so high that the day-to-day downs of life, the hatred from others, the taunts, the darkness of peeping eyes, the envy, the personal mental attacks of others, the judgment or reproach of others on our justified deeds won’t affect us anymore. We would just be able to take off those away as if brushing away dirt with our hands from our shirts, and then smile and walk tall. Let me take some instances to explain this phenomenon.
The first instance: We often tend to get disappointed if things do not happen the way we planned or according to our way. Or we come across someone actually blocking or causing an obstruction to what we planned. Our first response to such blockages is generally to react with “Anger”. But if we have already started the journey of loving ourselves, we will respond to this in a different way, saying “I know I shall be able to better enact this plan another day with more success” or “ just smile at the person who caused the unwanted blockage, maybe even to the extent of getting involved to make that person momentarily happy” or “just move away from the situation in silence” and not just react with anger or disappointment any more which might have been the usual response.
Another instance: A girl madly in love with a guy from a very young age. She dreamed of a beautiful life with him. Even the guy happened to come near the girl or the guy unknowingly was always polite and kind and caring for the girl. But the guy met another girl in another phase of his life and found true love in the second girl and just decided to marry her. Now for the first girl, she may feel, “what was the mistake? where did she go wrong? why was her deep and honest love betrayed or not reciprocated?” With this feeling, she may either break up from within or be very angry with the boy, which is very natural. However, the situation will be very different if the girl has already started loving herself. She will respond by thinking, “Maybe God has much better plans for her, maybe still she has not met the person in whose arms she will feel the safest, who will be the one to take care of her whole life”. And she will then either be happy in her friend’s (the boy here) happiness or just silently move away from his life. But then the wait for her own good times may be tough or maybe longer. She may even feel guilty about loving someone who does not reciprocate with the same feelings towards her. But if she has acquired the power of loving herself, she will not let the guilt trouble her and immerse herself in the beauties of life, of nature, of time, give love to her parents and friends, spend more time in her hobby or her work, whatever makes her feel good about herself and the results of all these will have to be finally very beautiful, since she had made the best use of her time instead of lamenting on something which was not meant for her. Yes, memories may remain but she will be able to look into the memory and smile, and realize that she has become a better person in life because of her past experiences.
One more instance can be like: Someone lost his/her father at a young age in a very sad accident. The life of the child, because of this sudden loss may totally get devastated, with the earning source of the family gone to take care of the child. The strength to depend upon gone suddenly from the child’s life. People would give sympathy, near and dear ones may be sad in the loss, however, all the sympathy and sorrow will last only for some time. The actual fight of life would have to be fought by the child himself/herself. But do we often see why many such children are able to do very well in life? Why such a child is able to cope up with any situation later in life to become a better person? Because there exists that DIVINE POWER. The power which lifts the child up and gets him/her going, the power which shows the path, the power from the deceased who helps to take out the best in the child which might not have come out if his/her father was actually alive. Such children who have moved ahead of the grief to be successful, often are able to lead a good life, give better advice and be happier than others in small things of life. This is all possible because the child must have mastered the power of loving himself/herself.
One can apply this concept on many occasions of own life experiences and others' lives as well and keep mastering this art of loving oneself with each passing day. Life often throws at us situations or challenges where this power can be applied in a technique making it also a science. And then can actually see this power becoming a part of life. Such beautiful and peaceful this power is, that it is gonna change one forever.
Let’s remember it is never too late to start the process of achieving this infinite Power. Some may have unknowingly already begun this journey of self-love. The good part is only very few can claim that they have mastered this journey, in fact, one who has been able to master will actually never claim that he/she has. Once we begin, we all will be at some or another phase in this journey. But it is very easy to know and realize that we have begun since life will feel more at peace, the mind will be calm, the way we respond to difficult situations will change, we will be able to find positives even in extreme odds, we shall be able to welcome anyone with love and most importantly we will feel closer to God by the act of loving ourselves. This will in turn bring a beautiful positive aura into our inner space which will also start reflecting outside bringing about positive changes in people and places associated with us. So let’s start affirming and loving ourselves today.
Aum Namah Shivaya!
