Your True Love Connection

Self love and you.

February is the month our attention turns to true love, romance, and relationships, culminating with the celebration of St. Valentine’s Day on February 14.

On that day we traditionally celebrate those we love with cards, flowers, sweet treats, or gifts that symbolize our love for them. Certainly these relationships are vital in our lives.

This article is about your true love connection.

But there’s more to Your True Love Connection…

What Is Love, Really?

As humans we thrive in webs of connection. Love is all about connection. We yearn to be with those we love when we cannot be with them. As a result, we may think constantly of them when we are apart. Or we may immerse ourselves in memories of past happy times together. 

We typically think of love in relationship to others. Some of us spend an entire lifetime searching for love and never finding it. That’s because we may begin our search for love outside ourselves. Many suffer a lifetime of longing and yearning, trying to fill the “holes” of emptiness they feel.

The inner flame of love within you may have become a mere flicker in your awareness. Consider this question: Has your true light been obscured by life experiences that may have included emotional, psychological, physical pain or suffering? Memories of unpleasant or painful life experiences may bring up intense feelings of shame that make us feel unworthy of love and belonging.

Love is who you are.

In order to be able to receive love, we must feel that we are held in a safe space that allows for the free flow of love. In order for any relationship to endure it must be based on the trust that unconditional love nurtures.

Love is who you are.

We all need to feel that we belong and that we matter. First we must matter to ourselves. We need to know that we matter enough to work on and nurture the true love connection that begins within—in your true center.  

To love others is to give of ourselves from the love within that is never depleted. Such universal love connects us all together. It is enriched and expanded by our choice to embrace a path of loving ourselves at the deepest, most essential levels of the True Self.

Valentine’s Day 2024

Your relationship with your True Self nourishes all relationships.

This is the universal flow of true love. Even as we give of our hearts from the true state of love, our reservoir of love is replenished with a flow of love that never ends. 

Love is who you are!

A Cautionary Note: A vital aspect of loving yourself is self-care. Many loving and well-intentioned people abandon themselves in “doing” for others out of a sense of loving them. In loving others, do not abandon yourself. When that happens, you may exhaust yourself. You may become resentful and angry as you feel the need to continue to give to others even as you neglect yourself. Instead, learn to set healthy boundaries. Know when to say “no” to avoid the exhaustion of over-extending yourself. Commit to ways of being that replenish and restore your inner reserves. The flow of love involves giving, and it also requires your choice to allow yourself to receive. 

What is love?

Love is our natural state.

True Love is already within each of us.

This is your true love connection

Self-Awareness and Your True Love Connection

Becoming aware of yourself and the path to true love

Love is always there. It requires no desperate or anguished searching. It is a matter of simply awakening to it. Once we remember and reconnect with the love within, we can more easily open ourselves to extend love and to receive love. 

Does the idea of self-love sound selfish to you? Actually it is impossible to love others if you cannot love yourself. To love ourselves is to give of ourselves from a deep reservoir of love that never dries up. This universal love bonds us all together. 

Loving relationships must be cultivated and nurtured. This includes your relationship with you! Your relationship with yourself must be cultivated and nurtured just as any relationship between two people. It begins with self-acceptance. 

Love is who you are.

In order to love others, we must first fall in love with ourselves. This is where true love begins.

Love is who you are.

Self-Acceptance and Your True Love Connection

Accepting yourself

Practicing self love begins with fully accepting who you are. Self-acceptance means accepting all of who you are. It means accepting the whole you as you are right now in this moment—flaws, blemishes, inner wounds and all.

In order to love yourself, you have to intentionally choose to accept the whole package of who you are—even those parts of you that you would rather not acknowledge or choose to know. It means being daring enough to shine the light of your awareness on those shadow parts of yourself that you may have hidden away so that you nor others would not see them.

Love is who you are.

Make the conscious choice to love the wholeness you are. Be vulnerable enough to risk allowing yourself  to receive love from others. 

Love is who you are.

Self-acceptance means accepting yourself as you are right now, flaws and all. It means recognizing your imperfections and embracing them You are who you are and you are magnificent in your uniqueness, so you can let go of that habit of comparing yourself with others…and always seeing yourself as coming up short, as not being enough.

You are you… and you are always enough. In order to love yourself, you have to intentionally choose love; that is, to remember and embrace your loving nature that is your natural state of being.  You are love; I am love. Make the conscious choice to allow yourself  to be vulnerable enough to receive love.

Accept all of who you are as you are. As you come to accept yourself as you are, you realize that, just as you are not perfect, no one is perfect. Imperfection is part of our humanity. We all suffer. We are all in this life together. With this realization, self-compassion has taken root and begins to expand outward to include not only your connection with yourself, but also your all  your relationships including family, community, nature, and the world.

Love is who you are.

Self-Compassion and Your True Love Connection

Loving yourself

Self-compassion leads to the expression of kindness to yourself. Begin to treat yourself with tenderness rather than being critical and judgmental when you fail to meet your own expectations  of yourself. Accept your imperfections, and begin with the awareness that we are all imperfect. 

Whenever possible, bring your awareness to your own humanity. Choose to recognize and feel a connection to others rather than remaining isolated in your suffering. You can cultivate self-compassion by becoming more mindful. Mindfulness allows you to be with what is and accept what is in the moment. If you are suffering, be with your pain. Acknowledge it and make choices from a place of mindfulness and compassion for yourself.

Self-compassion naturally expands outward. Your deeper connection with yourself through self-love opens your heart to greater awareness of your place in the world. In this state of loving awareness you see the world as an extension of yourself.

With this perspective of your true love connection, you can celebrate your common humanity with others this Valentine’s Day. In this way you are contributing to the creation of a more compassionate and peaceful world. What can be more loving than that? 

Love is who you are.

With Much Love,

The True Center Team

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