53. Accepting love

“I am seeking, I am striving, I am in it with all my heart” - Vincent Van Gogh

The notion that self-love is not needed is misguided. We need to gain confidence in who we are with all our qualities and faults. Maturity is knowing this and understanding whether another person needs to play a role in being a part of that story- this is essential to receiving the love you believe you need.

Love is not designated to only romantic partners but can be in friendships, conversations with colleagues, and overall how we interact. There is a confidence in knowing yourself and the value you offer to the world- this manifests into allowing for sifting through what you do and don’t need in relationships and how you can serve others.

We attract the people we are like and become the average of the 5 people we spend the most time with. If we are self-deprecating and our friends don’t have high standards for themselves or you then chances are your self-confidence won’t be there.

It all starts with you accepting yourself and knowing that you are loved.

We need to move from this idea that the world feeds us that our value is intrinsically aligned with our actions and know that whoever we are, whatever the past or current situations we are in, we are uniquely and wonderfully different and have so much to offer to the world.

However, this doesn’t mean to sit back and be idle but rather we needn’t stress to meet a quota to allow ourselves to accept love. We are enough. Self-improvement, work, and betterment of ourselves are helpful but are completely separate from the evaluation of our value as people being worth love.

“We accept the love we think we deserve” - Stephen Chbosky

We are often our own worst enemy. We fixate on individual circumstances and see those as a barrier for us to accept love from God, family, partners, friends, or just the world as a whole.

Yet, this is just our twisted mind playing games on us. In and of themselves those actions we took part in may have been bad but they don’t stain us nor restrain us from being cared for. In ancient Greece, there were 8 words used to describe love due to its sheer complexity. ‘Agape’ was one of these and it means unconditional love.

It is a heart shift to be open to recognise that we are all able and worth agape.

Removal of the constant comparison, escaping the endless rat race for ‘success’, and not giving time for false words of inadequacy to be spoken over you, are necessary for the perspective change.

“Feelings are not neutral, they are a battlefield. There will be people who want you to choose a side, causes that need a hand, problems that need action”

The world will tell you that you are not deserving of love if you allow it. They are the enemy on the battlefield. You can sit idly by and just allow yourself to simply be crushed and believe that or step up.

Accept Agape.

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54. Menial jobs

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52. Idolising Pain