I Love You

I love you is one of the most powerful statements we can say and hear.  We are all searching for that love that lifts us when we’re down and makes us feel like we can conquer the world.  Look at all the love songs riddled with people who are in love, lost love, looking for love and confused by love.  Love makes us do crazy things that we normally wouldn’t.  We can get irrational and obsessive.
Love is powerful!
There are many spiritual wisdoms that talk about love thy neighbor as thyself. If we all want love, why is the world in such chaos?  Why is it so hard to love thy neighbor as thyself? Well, I think the problem isn’t that we aren’t loving our neighbor as ourselves.  The problem is we are!
When’s the last time you said I love you… to you?  I challenge you to do it now.  Go to the mirror, look yourself in the eye, and say those three little words… I love you.
If you’re like most people I have posed this challenge to, the simple thought of doing this makes you squirm.  We are so hard on ourselves.  We punish ourselves, feel guilty for bad choices, and get stuck in the “what if” syndrome.  What if, I did this not that?  The realty is that if we saw the whole picture of what would be, we might make different choices, but we don’t.  We can only do the best we can with the information we have.
In order for love to prevail in this world, for the chaos to stop, we need to embrace love.  We need to truly love thy neighbor as thyself.  But in order to do that we need to first love ourselves and then love can prevail over chaos.  I beg you, treat yourself with a kindness, laugh at your mistakes, let go of resentments, and please stop punishing yourself for things that are beyond your control.  We are all human, and the very fact that we are walking on this earth means we will make mistakes.  We can’t control that, but we can control how we feel about ourselves.
Even if you have to fake it, I challenge you to love yourself.  Look yourself in the eye every morning and say those three powerful words, “I love you”.  Watch how your day, and the attitudes around you start to shift to a place of peace and kindness.
As always, we would love to hear how it goes for you.  In sharing our struggles and triumphs, we get stronger as individuals and as a community.
Remember…  I love you!