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I love Myself so much

That I can love You so much,

That You can love You so much,

That You can start loving Me

-- Chant From The Sound of Agape Chant; Collection 1 Rickie Byars

Loving yourself allows you to see the beauty in others. It opens your senses to the brilliance of divine light, to the sweetness of your own life experience and to the power of your focused incarnation. Loving yourself allows your consciousness to assume the shape of love, which makes you at once loving and lovable. But most of us are very stingy with the love we offer ourselves.

We tend to block the flow of love that would be continuously wafting through our awareness, freshening the air and cleansing our energetic field. We block it in innumerable ways. Shame, guilt, anger and depression offer the standard forms of obstruction. In fact, the more talented and creative you are, the more you probably have come up with extraordinary ways to prevent yourself from loving yourself.

We can open ourselves to a transformational flow of love by dissolving some of these barriers. Here is a three-step process you can use to amplify the love in your life by more purely loving yourself.

Step 1: Willingness

The first step in the process of disintegrating the boulder that's blocking the path of our love is to be willing to see that blockage as illusory. That doesn't mean it's not there. Movies are illusory but they form a huge industry with tremendous influence. So when we realize that our shame, guilt, anger, depression (and whatever else may be holding our love hostage) are illusory, we are not saying they don't have power over us. We are saying they don't have to. The willingness to see through these mental patterns of resistance, on to the love that is always available, opens the door to heightened awareness. The stories we tell ourselves about why we aren't lovable have no substance. The more we realize this, the faster we pull the plug on their power. It's OK if you're not there yet. This is just the first step, to be willing.

Step 2: Magnificent Incarnation

Step two brings us directly to the heart of the matter. In this step you come face to face with your true magnificence. How great are you? How miraculous is your incarnation? If you really look inward, I think you will find that every single detail of this incarnation is divinely matched to your soul's intention. Here you can begin to sense your true greatness. I've taken to pausing frequently in my life to consider the big picture of this incarnation. I find that if I can stop my habitual complaining or negating long enough to actually get a sense of the silent landscape of this incarnation, it is startlingly perfect. It fits like skin. It is just right. So what about all the complaints? What about all the apparent problems? They reveal themselves as mere static, obscuring a symphony of intentions. These intentions intertwine miraculously, harmonize magnificently and beat the rhythms of our lives. This is step two: Recognizing the magnificence of your incarnation and appreciating how well suited it is to your nonphysical intentions. Once you get a real feeling for this, a smile may breeze across your face. You may start to love yourself a little more easily, spontaneously and expansively.

Step 3: Honoring Creation

It can be hard for the mind to wrap itself around the notion that we, as human beings, were created. Out of all the infinite possibilities, this human self that you are came together as a burst of specific expression. And all of a sudden, there you were, you! And you have been unfolding endless realities from that initial creation. Loving yourself means loving the vortex of creation you are. We tend to think of ourselves as egotistical if we love ourselves. But if we think more logically about it, we can see that loving ourselves honors the Creator that made us and shows respect for the creative vehicles of our parents and ancestors. If we are the creation, then we shine light back to our Creator by loving the creation we are. The third step, honoring the Creator by loving the creation, gives you the permission you may feel you need to love yourself.

These three simple steps can dislodge whatever has been blocking your flow of love:

(1) Being willing to see the obstacles to love as illusory

(2) Appreciating the magnificence of this incarnation and

(3) Honoring the Creator by loving the creation

As you open to loving yourself in this way, you also expand your capacity to love others exponentially. As you love others with more authenticity, you shine love's light everywhere you go.

Copyright 2006 Rebbie Straubing