Living Yoga – Transforming What is Not Love

We all have aspects of ourselves that we believe are not worthy of being loved.

It may be something physical: I have a long nose that no one would love. Or I am not lovable because I am so fat and ugly. It may be something about our personality: I am an angry person. Or I am a dull person.It may be something about our character or our circumstances. Yet when we swim in the ocean waters of our Heart Center, we realize, “No matter what, I am loved. I am totally loved by The Divine.” Once that realization is part of our consciousness, we simply have to bring it into the places where we feel unloved.

In meditation, become aware of the parts of you that feel like unloved orphans, and welcome them back into the family. Become conscious of parts of your nature that you can’t love, especially those that you want others to love for you. Gently and steadily, bathe one aspect at a time in The Divine’s Love. When you truly feel that each part of you is love, you are whole.

Be careful not to whitewash your fears with grandiose illusions. If you say to yourself, “I totally accept myself, my faults and weaknesses. I am perfect just as I am, I need no change”, you are creating a delusion, a white shadow. Instead, cultivate self-love by acknowledging that in you which is difficult to love, and then loving it. Look at your hands, examine them carefully, and realize the ways in which they are beautiful as well as the ways in which they are imperfect. No matter how you perceive them, feel love for them anyway. Make that love a part of your being. Each day, feel more, love more.

© Aadil Palkhivala, 2008