Radical Self-Love

by Aleksandra

It is not as radical as it is NECESSARY...

Still I do recognize that for many of us it would be radical to turn towards oneself and to ride the waves of life from within. It means taking a stance of total self-love and devotion towards oneself and to one’s path. Easy! - one could say – ‘that is what we came here for in the first place!’ - so what’s the fuss about? Why is it so difficult to be totally devoted to oneself?

We do sabotage ourselves continually by not being faithful to our inner longings, by compromising, by not following what is important, by choosing time-in-time-out other than what serves us despite of any imagined social pressures or personal mindfucks.

How is radical self-love different from egocentricism, selfishness and self-obsession?

I feel the difference is in the amount of self-love itself. Egocentric attitude comes out of wanting to address a lack of some sort. It’s responding to the ‘not good enough’ and thus needing to make up for it by playing big or by chasing momentary satisfactions of the ego. Chasing the experiences which give us gratifications and external validations rather than opening-up to the present moment no matter how much resistance there is in our system. But with resistance comes persistence. Self-love arises when we choose to look in and to let our emotional body free. That is to be authentic to our inner movements rather than mind induced ideals of what we should be. Self-obsession comes from lack, radical self-care comes from deep understanding of oneself and deep respect for one’s gifts.

Radical self-love is radical self-care.

To generate self-love is to take care of oneself first. This could come in different ways. The key ingredients are to take care of the body, to be in touch with emotions, to give physical self-love to the body, to express creatively, to process, integrate and study oneself, to nourish the mind and soul. And to take care of oneself first is knowing thyself. Understanding how our inner movements communicate with us and through us and how the creative river wants to flow through us.

Self-love to the body, self-pleasure practice.

The self-care seems like a lot, so where to start? The key is in the body, to sink back into the body, to get out of the head and get over oneself by directly applying healing to oneself. Start with what you have creating abundance feelings first. Start with your own body love. Start using your own healing powers in the hands. Self-practice when we use hands to awaken our sensations and pleasure in the body immediately shifts the sate of consciousness. Dropping in by finding pleasure in the somatic experience rather than coming from fantasies and imaginations. Try it out! Start here and now by loving the body, thus awakening self-love directly.