It’s not easy to understand what self-love is. Loving others and hoping for love from them in return is mind-bending enough. Self-love seems to suggest some weird connection between me and me, and my brain cramps trying to imagine it. Good thing journal writing sets things straight.
Self-love is always a hot topic with healers and therapists of all kinds because without self-love the methods these teachers use don’t work. You have to care about yourself before you can care about getting fit or improving your relationships or deepening your spiritual awareness or achieving whatever goal you have set.
So how do you know if you’re a lover of your self? Maybe try some journaling prompts:
- What do I do for fun and enjoyment?
- How attentively do I take care of my health?
- How much time do I spend listening: in prayer, meditation, walks, close communications, or maybe journaling?
- What is my general outlook? Is my viewpoint creative or negative or something else?
- How do I feel about change? Do I fear or welcome it?
There’s no right answer to these questions. But if you write out your thoughts and then realize that the time you spend having fun, staying healthy, listening, feeling optimistic, and welcoming change is nearly non-existent, it’s safe to say your self-love has gone missing.
Now the danger in such a situation is that the condition is simply not sustainable. You can’t give up on yourself and expect things to carry on as usual. So if you’re to go on living, you’ll have to regain some measure of self-love.
Fortunately, help is as close as your journal. Here’s a sample process:
- Write in your calendar that on a certain date, at a certain time, you will sit down with a journaling notebook. Commit to the date with all the soul you can muster.
- Keep the date. Find yourself at the appointed time with pen in hand.
- Write “Love is …” at the top of a clean page and make a list of definitions.
- Write “I want …” at the top of another clean page and make another list.
- On a third page, let your pen free write as it wishes, making sense or not, legibly or not.
When you’re done, make another date in your calendar.
Rinse and repeat this process and before long you’ll notice marked improvement. You'll begin to see color where there was only black and white. You'll be brought back to life. That's what's so important about self-love: it's as necessary as breathing!
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