The Sacred Art of Self Love
All rights reserved by Katherine Skaggs © 2006. Please do not reproduce without permission.

Inside each of us lies a profound gift of love that is larger than any power we can conceive. When we look for it, listen to it, and ask for it to reveal itself, we are surprised by its sweetness, kindness, compassion and deep healing abilities when it arrives. This love is what we often think we must find from another, or must give away. Yet, its most sacred mission is to be received into one's own self.

The act and the art of loving oneself deeply, sacredly, have somehow been lost in our fast pace society and culture. We have learned it is better to give than to receive. We have learned that if we are too happy with whom we are that we are arrogant. Yet, isn't it necessary to love ourselves as deeply as possible so that we may experience the wellspring of love within that allows us to give fully to another?

Loving oneself is the most sacred act we can give to ourselves and to the world. As we embrace our own sacred and divine nature, one thought at a time, one breathe at a time, we embrace and expand our ability to love our neighbor, our brother, our sister, our enemy. If we will learn to drop the judgments we hold against our selves and accept our core essence of love in motion, we will begin to truly honor ourselves in new ways. Once we have done this for ourselves, we are able to meet each person on the path and honor them more greatly.

Humanity yearns for this compassion, understanding and deep love for the Self. We are hungry for validation. We are hungry for a sense of completeness and peace. We are hungry for someone to stop from the chaos of life just long enough to recognize us in our entirety. We are hungry to know how to give this to ourselves.

In a moment we can learn to breathe this into ourselves and into our hearts, with our intention and our desire to make ourselves whole and complete. With each thought, we can practice more loving kindness directed inwardly with compassion. As this takes hold and expands throughout our sense of Self we find our ability to pass it on to another.

In that same moment we find we can move that energy from our heart center with but a glance and a smile at a stranger, sending our loving energy their direction. They lift their eyes and meet our glance, breathe a sigh of fresh air and take in the love. We have never spoken, just sent love through the airwaves, and the world has become a better place.

How have you loved yourself today? And how have you allowed this love to expand to another for deep caring?

Imagine waking up each morning with a sense of completeness inside, breathing in love deeply into your lungs, into every cell in your body. Imagine that this love is as sweet as a rose's scent, flowing through every part of you. It is filled with light and causes you to glow with an increasing passionate energy for life. Imagine that this love is so joyful that you can only smile at the dawn of your new day. You awaken feeling held in the arms of angels affirming you at the deepest of levels.

This joy expands into the field of energy all around you and through you, reaching out to others through an invisible expansion as broadcasting radio waves of love. It moves through your household, your business, and your community as the sweet aroma of a fresh baked pie. You walk down the street and others feel the presence of your loving nature just as you pass by. Their hearts breathe in deeply and knowingly as if they can take this love into their own selves. You may never stop to meet that person, yet you've given them the gift of love by allowing that love to flow to you and through you. You are a radiant presence of love.

So today I invite you to move within your world, imagining how much love is flowing into and through you, imagining how much more you can love yourself deeply, with each thought, with each word spoken, with each action taken. Thank yourself for who you are. Be grateful for your life as it is now. You have just made the world a better place by being lovingly you.

With much love,
Katherine Skaggs