  Spiritual
This week: All We Need is Love Edited by: Sophurky  
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Hi, I'm Sophurky ~ your editor for this edition of the Spiritual Newsletter. With Valentine's Day coming up soon, this week we'll look at the Spiritual Practice of Love -- in particular, love of self as the gateway to being fully able to love "God" and others. 
The Rev. Scotty McLennan, author of the book "Finding Your Religion," compares humanity's innate need for spiritual searching to climbing a mountain. In his view, we are all endeavoring to climb the same figurative mountain in our search for the divine, we just may take different ways to get there. In other words, there is one "God," but many paths. I honor whatever path or paths you have chosen to climb that mountain in your quest for the Sacred.  |
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L is for LOVE
Love your neighbor as yourself.
- Jesus of Nazareth
To take good care of yourself and to take good care of living beings and of the environment is the best way to love God.
- Thich Nhat Hanh
Jumping ahead a few letters in our occasional series based on the Alphabet of Spiritual Literacy by Frederick and Mary Ann Brussat, we move to the spiritual practice of the letter L for Love, which is described on the Spirituality and Practice web site as follows:
Love of self, love of neighbors, and love of God are the foundational stones of the world's religions. Spiraling out from the core of our being, our other loves are also cobblestones on the spiritual path: love of family, of partner, of friends, of community, of animals, of nature, of country, of things, of hobbies, of work. Love is not something that you just fall into, as the romantic songs suggest. Love is a spiritual practice. You can get better at it over time. Begin by recognizing that you can't love others until you truly love yourself - body, mind, and soul. As you move through a day, be aware of love's expressions emerging from you or coming toward you - attraction, focus, absorption, desire, adoration, security, trust, empathy, caring, harmony, contentment, communion. Practice extending the reach of these feelings. It is through loving that we experience the love of God.
"Begin by recognizing that you can't love others until you truly love yourself - body, mind, and soul." Easier said than done, isn't it? Many of us struggle with love of self -- we love others, and give our hearts and souls and minds to "God," but we aren't as good at loving ourselves, even though many of our ancient scriptures call for it. Deeply spiritual people have always understand the need for love of self in order to truly be able to love "God" and others. So what makes so many of us unable to do so?
There are many and varied reasons why people struggle with love of self -- hurts from the past that haven't healed, inner voices telling us we aren't worthy, insecurities and feelings of inadequacy that are so hard to dismiss or ignore, mis-assigned blame and failures for which we cannot forgive ourselves just to name a few. Additionally some religious teachers (and thus, their followers) have equated love of self with being the same thing as being selfish or self-centered, and view it as a sinful practice. But there's a big difference between being self-centered and loving oneself. Being selfish and self-centered implies a narrow view of the world with oneself greedily at the center of everything. Love of self, on the other hand, is about recognizing our own worthiness, and caring for ourselves in a way that enables us to be our best, truest, most authentic selves (which then makes us more able to care for others). I suspect this is why most religious texts recognize a healthy love of self as a necessary aspect of one's spirituality, as well as a necessary ingredient in being able to care for others.
So if we know that we are better able to love others, and to love "God" if we are truly able to love ourselves, how can we improve our ability to love self? One of the ways I have dealt with this in the past is through writing. Whether through poetry, or journaling, I am often able to verbalize a sense of love for myself when I put it on paper. An added benefit to this practice is going back and reading what I wrote at a later date. When I was younger and really struggling, I once wrote a letter to myself in the form of a journal entry, using the voice of "God" as the author of the letter, expressing reasons for why I was lovable. I found it a few years ago and though reading it years later was a bit cringe-worthy  I understood what my younger self was trying to do and appreciated the exercise as a valuable one.
How do you nurture your love of self? How do you care for yourself? Do you do any special pampering for yourself, or recite prayerful meditations? What helps you love yourself so that you can then love others? Please reply below in the comments section and I'll share your responses with readers next month. And in the mean time, next week when you are sharing your love with others on February 14, don't forget to give yourself a special gift this Valentine's Day -- love yourself! |
Below you'll find some offerings from other WDC members about loving self and others. Please let the folks know if you read their piece by leaving a thoughtful comment or review.
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#1424643 by Not Available. |
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|  | Love is a Verb (ASR)
Giving and showing love are the most important things we can do in all relationships.
#437278 by Kenzie  |
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#1747728 by Not Available. |
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Here's a comment from my last Spiritual Newsletter on "Imagination," "Spiritual Newsletter (January 12, 2011)" :
From Zeke 
Unfortunately imagination is also what often fuels fear in humans. It's not what has happened, it's what we imagine could happen.
Zeke
True, our imaginations can run wild and create fear -- a sad misuse of such a wonderful gift.
Please keep your comments and suggestions coming, they are greatly appreciated!
Sophurky |
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Spiritual: February 09, 2011 Issue [#4228]
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