The reality is we don’t love ourselves all of the time, just like we don’t love the people around us all of the time. Love occurs in a moment lasting as short as a heartbeat and as long as a lifetime. When we don’t fulfill our needs, are dishonest and impatient with ourselves, believe that we are not good enough or neglect to take care of and nurture our mind and body then we are not loving.
Is love an automatic state of consciousness or a state of consciousness that we choose? Do we still love the child that we were and the friend and spouse that we knew or is it nostalgia?
Humans by nature are designed to strive and complete the continuum of love. This love is learned during our very first experience as an infant in the form of nurture. Loving our Self is like a flailing lifeline anchored by the love from nurture and is tamed by the love of a significant other. Whether regarding ourselves, our children, our spouse, our friends and strangers: if we do more in love then we receive more in love. Love is an art that requires practice.
