“The Soul needs love as urgently as the body needs air”
John O’Donohue
For those of your who know me, you know that I have a 16 year old son. Last week, he shared with my husband and me that he sometimes feels like he hates himself. He said things like he doesn’t like his body, that he has trouble completing things, that he gets bored easily, has a hard time with friends.
Listening to him, my heart broke into a thousand tiny little pieces. As I fought to stay in my heart and hold a space for him, my mind started closing in on myself. All the ways that his feelings were ALL MY FAULT came barreling into my awareness. In the blink of an eye, my son’s challenge was dwarfed underneath a barrage of self criticism.
Can you relate at all?
The irony wasn’t lost on me … that the very thing that my son needs for himself was THE VERY THING that I needed for myself as well … LOVE, and more specifically, SELF LOVE 🙂
SELF LOVE …
In the moment, it felt like my own love for him, compassion, acceptance and “heart” just wasn’t enough. That I needed to do something to take away his feelings. Yet, after a few minutes of me just hugging him and listening … literally not saying a word, he hugged me back, wiped his eyes and said how much better he felt simply by getting it out. He was so grateful for us for listening and supporting him.
I hadn’t said a word, but he FELT my love.
And that is the nature of Self Love … yes, there are words we can say to ourselves, but it is the feeling of the words, our intention to connect with ourselves with compassion and self acceptance that is the food that our Soul is so hungry for.
Please join me in giving yourself this food for your Soul today: Self Love. Enjoy the meditation!