Love Yourself

I suspect that a lot of us in our early childhood were “controlled” (during the terrible 2’s etc.) by conditional love from our parents.  This is a near term strategy which seems to work, but has long term implications.  Most notably, it leads to type-A behaviour where one is never good enough (a side effect of feeling a lack of intrinsic self worth) and where one does not have a healthy sense of self love.

The other part of this quote that really struck home to me is the last line:  "Your mental states are part of the planet’s psychic atmosphere.”  We tend to think that we have to go out and “do” something to save the planet or to save humanity; when in fact, our greatest contribution is to “be” somebody - somebody who embodies the grace, love, spontaneity, and exuberance that is our human potential.

“You cannot love your neighbor, in fact, until you love yourself, and if you believe that it is wrong to love yourself, then you are indeed unable to love anyone else.

“For a start, you will acknowledge your existence in the framework of nature, and to do that you must recognize the vast cooperative processes that connect each species with each other one.  If you truly use your prerogatives as an individual in your country, then you can exert far more power in normal daily living than you do now.  Every time you affirm the rightness of your own existence, you help others.  Your mental states are part of the planet’s psychic atmosphere.”

(The Individual and the Nature of Mass Events, Session 870)