I think self-love and self-realization go together, each promoting the other, each accessible via a multiplicity of paths, such as with our internal and external self-talk, harboring expressions of our self-beliefs and mental attitudes. I want to share an excerpt from the New York Times Magazine(7/17/2022) that touches on the idea that ‘we can be more than who we are’ with some savvy self-parlance.
“The act of speaking to myself is a reminder that constancy and singularity are illusory to begin with. That my multiplicity is, in turn, a kind of promise. I needn’t be as I am. You needn’t, either. Very probably talking to yourself will not change the world. It may not even radically change you. But the dialogue between current and potential selves is small proof that such change is possible.”
It’s so wonderful to see how you blend your mind and heart in your words of wisdom. Yes indeed, self-love and self-realization go together. Self-realization encompasses sincere appreciation for one’s strengths with acceptance of one’s limitations. The more we accept and appreciate who we are the more we recognize we love ourselves. Our capacity for self-love and realization fuels our capacity to love and realize others. The prospect that dialogue between our current and potential selves can produce change in ourselves, generates a rational belief in hope. And this kind of hope will naturally produce small changes in us which impacts our small world and ultimately the big world. Love and self-compassion for ourselves and others transform our world. C.