The importance of loving yourself.

Have you heard the phrase “you must love yourself first?” I had heard it a million times and never understood what it was really suppose to mean. When I was diagnosed with breast cancer, the still, small voice within me was not whispering anymore, it was screaming. It spoke so clearly, it is one of the reasons I wrote a book about my experience.

Do you know what it actually means to love yourself? I am not speaking of loving your physical body, although that is important too. I am speaking about a deeper connection beyond the physical shell you now reside in. Loving yourself means having a relationship with self and knowing that you are an important part of All That Is! You understand you are at one with God and not separate from God. It also means you are at one with love and not separate from love.

When you first meet someone, you want to know all about them and get to know them. You want to know their likes, dislikes and values. You recognize when they are feeling good or when they are feeling bad. You come to respect, admire and appreciate them. You support and encourage them. You go out of your way to accommodate them. How awesome would it be if you could do this for yourself?

When you start loving yourself you will begin to understand that what ever you want to experience in life such as love, joy, peace, abundance or health, you must first embody it yourself. When you love yourself you want to share your love with others. Love becomes an extension of who you are. You do not have conditions in a relationship because you know you are unconditional love.

If you do not love yourself, you could be attracting to you, at some level, the experience of cancer and possibly other illnesses too. This is what my intuition and going through my experience with breast cancer revealed to me. I do not claim to be an expert of any kind in the field of diseases. I am only sharing with you what I have come to understand, from spirit speaking to me through my own experience. It is one of the reasons so many women are affected with breast cancer. It is associated with our emotions and manifests itself in the chest area. You might say it is truly at the HEART of the matter!

When you hold in a lot of anger and feel unloved, not worthy, unattractive, extreme dislike for your self, you are not in the flow with well being. You are not in the flow with love, joy, peace, abundance or health.

These insecure, uncomfortable thoughts and feelings you hold in your consciousness begin to send a signal and energy throughout your body. Over a period of time, Law of Attraction begins rounding up, gathering together and summoning to you what you are thinking and feeling. You are sending out vibrations that are not in alignment with who you really are. If the dis-ease you’ve been feeling is not recognized, over time, it will begin forming a mass.

Amass (a mass) means to, accumulate, collect, build up, hoard, assemble, store up, gather and pile up. This is what you are doing to your body when you hold on to resistant and negative thoughts and beliefs. They are accumulating, collecting and building up inside of you. Once you are able to recognize and let go of these types of thoughts and feelings by focusing on “what feels good” instead, then you will be in alignment and a match to your own well being.

Examples of not so good thoughts vs. good feeling thoughts:
• I hate the way I look vs. I have a lot of great qualities
• I don’t deserve good things vs. I am just as worthy as anyone
• I am no good vs. I am a good person
• I hate myself vs. I love myself.
• I am a victim of circumstances vs. I am a powerful creator
• I am not smart vs. I can accomplish what ever I put my mind to
• I am ugly vs. I am attractive in many ways

Loving your self can be of grave importance to your health. In fact, it should be the most important priority in your life.

There is great joy to be found and it resides inside of you! When you are enjoying yourself, you have joy in yourself. When there is joy in your heart, you are full of joy; you are joyfully creating your experiences.
There are many great masters who walk the earth and you are one of them. You are a master and you are a master creator. We are all master creators, but have forgotten how powerful we are. Our core nature is love.

Destructive power comes from fear and not from love. When you fear something or someone your reaction is to attack them or get defensive. This can take form through your thoughts, your words or a physical attack on someone. When you are defensive in your outward actions, your body’s reaction is to become defensive inwardly as well. Your words and actions, you might say, could be aggressive. Does this word sound familiar when thinking of cancer or dis-ease? How many times have people been told their cancer is the “aggressive” type?

Become aware of the thoughts and beliefs you hold about yourself and about others. Ask yourself, “What do I love about myself?” If you feel negative emotion when you ask yourself that question, then begin focusing on the parts of yourself you do like. If you can’t seem to find anything positive then remind yourself of who you really are. You ARE love, spirit, eternal, pure positive energy and you are powerful, whether you know it or not.

“With great power comes great responsibility,” was a line in the movie “Spiderman”. My interpretation of what I believe this to mean is, when you are aware of who you really are as a spiritual being, there is great love, consistency, trustworthiness, reliability and honesty in your character. It does not mean you are responsible for anyone else. It means you are in charge of yourself. You are only responsible for the love in yourself or loving yourself. When you love yourself, you become a mirror for the world and others see themselves in you.

Leslie Bishop, of Empowering Pathways, Universal Laws Life Coaching, specializing in breast cancer recovery, is a Certified Empowerment Coach and Author of the book “Congratulations, You Have Cancer!” To contact Leslie or to find out more about her book email: Lbsands.aol.com