love.

Love. You may notice that I made that an entire sentence.
That one four-letter word can easily be a sentence on its own,
an entire book, or the meaning of life.
I doubt there has ever been a person on this planet,
who has not at some stage pondered the meaning of this little word.
People have lived for it, and people have died for it.

Love and God are probably the two words that encompass infinite connotations.

Most commonly we think of love as being 'in love' with another person,
or being loved by another person.

At the big end of the scale we often refer to our greatest love as our soul mate.

Being in love can make 'your heart sing'

Losing love,
and being unloved can make you feel like your soul has had all the lights turned off.

Love is so profound, complex, and illusive,
and yet it is the most basic and natural part of our hamanness.

As important as loving and being loved is,
I want you to consider a much more important aspect of life: 'self love.'

Without self-love, we are without purpose and are lacking in authenticity.

Without self-love we are simply not real.

At the very core of our existance is a hunger to know ourselves;
to feel connected, valued, secure, and important.

We all struggle to understand ourselves.
However, rarly do we dare to love ourselves,
or even consider the possibility and yet there is that longing. 
Deep within our heart of hearts is the knowledge of the possibility that we could,
and should.

Imagine your own potential if you could meet with your true self,
and find that you did indeed truly love yourself.

Lets get rid of the idea that i am talking about ego, vanity, boasting, or arrogence.
Self-love has nothing to do with these characteristics.
These are masks we wear, to hide the fact that we are insecure.

Self-love does not involve insecurity, or vanity.

How on earth did we all get so stuffed up,
that we actually believe that we are something less than perfect?

We have all learned to wear masks. We have had to.
Sometimes its a matter of self-preservation,
but mostly its social conditioning.

Its funny really,
to consider that we are all searching for our 'soul-mate' from behind our masks.

How will they know us? How will we know them, if we are both hiding?
Usually we dont even acknowledge our own falseness,
and yet we expect others to be authentic and to see us as authentic.

If you seriously want to create loving relationships in your life,
then you must first stop and consider, who and what you truly are.