I am studying a fabulous book by Sonia Choquette called Soul Lessons and Soul Purpose. If she is an author you are unfamiliar with I highly recommend her work. She is amazing... anyway onward
In this book there are soul lessons as she is sharing one of the soul lessons the idea that "suffering is always due to a lack of love" struck me as interesting and deserving of further pondering on my side. At first I was offended thinking I can live without love... but obviously this first flash passed quickly. I have always had a pet for goodness sake talk about unconditional love. So that being done it was time for some further review. I then went about the idea of others loving me. Having a significant other... hmmm... although at times I think that the love of such a connection was icing on the cake I realized that at times the suffering is very painful. Short words, negative energy, body language all had the ability to send me reeling into an unknown emotional plane of self preservation - mostly that takes the form of quick and complete withdrawal (as I know as a 5 I am the peacemaker). There have been a few times where instead of the flight I have chosen to fight. Always comical when I look back after time has passed. Perhaps the silliness of my choices of fight relieved much of the negative energy. Hence I decided that the suffering Sonia (I can call her by her first name because she is one of my new best friends) was referring to could only be related to self-love.
Now, the term self-love I was familiar with and hated. There is a contradiction. I would have to say that as long as I can remember that idea has bounced around in my head and found a way out my left ear. I detest the idea of self-love - how selfish. Wasn't our purpose to love all others? After meditation and prayer I discovered that she was right on. Without loving ourselves first - suffering is all that is left. No matter what we try to put out in the world cannot be placed in the most positive energy vibration when it originates in a negative space. Like attracts like - positive attracts positive, negative attracts negative. Which led me to think about other things and energy. I often feel negative energy of others very quickly and rush to find a way to either defend against the negative vibrations or completely remove myself from them. This is a new thing. I thought I always did so but as I'm learning more I am able to choose more often to live in a positive vibrational state. I have realized that by loving myself not only is that a strong defense but also a universal gift I can give to others.
I have also learned that I don't need to engage in the negative energy of others. I have the choice to disengage and walk away - a loving thing for both myself and others. So yes self-loving leads to less suffering. On to self-loving and the production of more positive energy vibration creating for myself.
