The World Needs You to Love Yourself
A Valentine's Day Message
From Carol Hansen Grey
Feb. 14, 2011

It's Valentine's Day – the day of love – a day when we send greetings of love to those who are near and dear to our hearts. For me, Valentine's Day holds an additional significance because it is also my birthday. I've always felt blessed to have been born on Valentine's Day and as I've grown older and look back on my life, I feel that it is no accident that my life's work for the past 18 years has revolved around teaching people the importance of loving themselves.

I first started my journey into self-love in 1992 and my whole world changed. I quit the corporate job that I hated, I opened a healing center, I started doing workshops teaching people the importance of loving themselves and how to achieve that state, I manifested the man of my dreams and together we started teaching our workshops around the country. The ripple effect of loving myself has, for me, been a peaceful, healthier, more abundant and fulfilled life. The ripple effect is different for everyone who starts on the journey of self-love, but it is without a doubt one of the most important journeys anyone can take.

But why is it so difficult for some of us to love ourselves? I feel that it probably started when we were children. Our parents may not have loved themselves and therefore did not know how to pass this important information on to their children. If you were raised by parents who didn't love themselves, then you had no role model. Adding to the mix is the advertising media that is constantly bombarding us with the message that we're not good enough just the way we are — that we need this product or that service to feel good about ourselves. Also, our addiction to watching and listening to the news plays a significant role. When we allow ourselves to be bombarded by negative news it's difficult to feel good about the world we live in and our place in it. If, on the other hand, we consciously eliminate the negative influences while allowing positive influences into our life as we are learning to love ourselves, the process will be accelerated.

I'm reminded of the message in the old Johnny Mercer song I remember from my early childhood:

You've got to accentuate the positive
Eliminate the negative
And latch on to the affirmative
Don't mess with Mister In-Between
You've got to spread joy up to the maximum
Bring gloom down to the minimum
Have faith or pandemonium's
Liable to walk upon the scene.

I would venture to say that many of us feel that pandemonium reigns in many parts of the world right now. Could it be that the amount of unrest in the world is the result of a lack of love? A Course in Miracles tells us that there are only two emotions: Love and Fear. Fear, is defined as anything that is NOT love – for instance, agitation, anxiety, dread, anger, rage, hatred, animosity, revenge, frustration, annoyance, exasperation, aggravation, disempowerment – and the list goes on... It also tells us that only love is REAL – that fear is an illusion, something that we have made up. So if we choose love, we eliminate fear.

But why does the World Need Us to Love OURSELVES? Wouldn't it be just enough if we loved others?

First of all, it's impossible to truly love others if you don't love yourself. You can't give from an empty well. If you are not filled with love of yourself, you cannot give love to others.
Secondly, when we begin to love ourselves, we then open the door to being able to tap into an inner peace that perhaps was unavailable to us before. In that loving place of inner peace our love radiates out to others around us.

Thirdly, loving ourselves helps create a peaceful world. Think of how different our world would be if everyone loved themselves and that love rippled out in all directions. Would we be fighting wars? World peace is an inside job. It begins when enough of us reach a state of inner peace. To reach that place of inner peace, your first step is to love yourself.

The world needs you to love yourself!! So, as you are sending your valentines today, please remember to send a valentine for yourself FIRST! It is your opportunity to begin the journey of helping to change the world by giving yourself the greatest love of all – unconditional love of yourself!

Happy Valentine's Day
© Carol Hansen Grey, 2-14-2011