Love

 

“The only person who can pull me down is myself, and I’m not going to let myself pull me down anymore.” ~ C. JoyBell C.  

My reading this week had me thinking about growth. The process of spiritual growth is an effortful and difficult one because it is conducted against a natural inclination to keep things the way they are, to cling to the old maps and old ways of doing things, to take the easy path. This force is known as inertia, the force of entropy; a resistance to rock the boat. The ‘if it ain’t broke don’t fix it’ mentality.

Love is defined as the will to extend one’s self for the purpose of nurturing one’s own or another’s spiritual growth. Today I’m thinking about self-love. When we grow, it is because we are working at it, and we are working at it because we love ourselves. It is through love that we elevate ourselves. Love is the miraculous force that defies the natural law of entropy.

However, there is a force that seeks to hold us back from our attempts at growth sometimes – the laziness of attempting to avoid necessary suffering or taking the easy way out. This laziness is the manifestation of the force of entropy in our lives.

A major form that laziness takes is fear. While all fear is not laziness, much of our fear is the fear of a change in the status quo, a fear that we might lose what we have if we venture forth from where we are now. Laziness is the basis of this fear - the fear of the work we would have to do in order to grow. To recognize laziness for what it is and acknowledge it in oneself is the beginning of its curtailment. And the only way we can accomplish this recognition is to practice self- love.

We all have a sick self and a healthy self. There is a part of us, however small, that wants us to grow, that likes change and development, that is attracted to the new and the unknown, and that is willing to do the work and take the risks involved in spiritual evolution. The other part of us does not want us to exert ourselves, clings to the old and familiar, is fearful of any change or effort, desires comfort at any cost and absence of pain at any price, even if the penalty be ineffectiveness, stagnation or regression. We must always be vigilant against the laziness of the sick self that lurks within us and the way to practice that vigilance is to offer ourselves tough love on a regular basis. Nurture the curiosity of your healthy self, explore the unknown, seek to learn new things, challenge yourself.  

“As I began to love myself I freed myself of anything that is no good for my health – food, people, things, situations, and everything that drew me down and away from myself. At first I called this attitude a healthy egoism. Today I know it is “LOVE OF ONESELF”. ~ Charlie Chaplin