As long as I can remember, I have always heard and been taught from a young age about loving your neighbor as yourself. If you don’t love yourself, how can you expect anyone else to love or care about you? Part of this stems from having a positive self-image. However, even as a child, it can be challenging when those who are supposed to care for you, like family or friends, put you down. It’s a rare person who teaches and shows the way to self-love.
Some emotions and feelings can’t be taught; they come from deep within each individual. Everyone experiences these emotions differently and uniquely. Loving yourself is distinct from being arrogant, conceited, or egocentric. Loving yourself means caring about yourself, taking responsibility for yourself, respecting yourself, and knowing yourself—being realistic and honest about your strengths and weaknesses. To truly love another person, one must first love oneself in this way. Loving and caring for others is a natural extension of loving oneself.
Loving yourself requires you to be truthful about your own feelings. If you are happy, acknowledge the joy; if you are sad, acknowledge the sorrow. When you are truthful about your feelings, you do not try to lie to yourself or bury your negative emotions. Instead, acknowledging what you feel can provide insight into your thoughts. Thoughts and actions can be changed, allowing healing and self-growth to take place.
When you spend time growing spiritually, loving yourself becomes automatic. You become more peaceful, connected, kind, loving, and compassionate. You nurture a mind that grows more beautiful by the day. You naturally love yourself in the process, which can go a long way toward making you a better person.
You have to find things that make you happy and enjoy that can be a sport, cooking, photography, painting and many more things.
All things that one enjoys and loves doing serve to make the individual a more rounded person, and you are unique in that way. No one else is like you or me everyone has a different thought process, different likes and dislikes. Something I might like, enjoy or express someone else would not. God made us all slightly different. If we were all the same what a dull place the world would be.
Love of a Parent (or aunt/uncle) for a Child
I have no children of my own, but I have a niece and nephew who I love with all my heart. I would do just about anything within my power for them, to help them and to teach them good values, accepting them for who they are and not what I think they should be. This is unconditional love.
As a parent, you love your child unconditionally, warts and all. There is no love that can ever compare to the love a parent feels for their child. It starts even before they are born and continues when they arrive. Even if a woman is unable to conceive and a couple adopts a child, the feeling is so awesome and amazing. You really begin to find out what real love is all about.
The love you feel for your child goes deeper than any love you have ever felt or will ever feel, even for your spouse or partner. You have a connection with the child because you know that he/she is a part of you and that they are the greatest gift you will ever receive. When you become a parent, you learn how to love someone without expecting anything in return and would give up your life if necessary.
A parent loves their child (or children) as long as their life endures. When parents feel the bond of life to their children, parental love naturally springs up. Parents cannot help but love their children, not because of a forced consciousness to love them intentionally, but because life connects them. I grew up with two parents who loved my brother and me equally, taught us right from wrong, and encouraged us. They shared joys and sorrows with us and taught us good values. We enjoy some of the same things, but there are things that my brother enjoys that I do not, and vice-versa. We are the same family but also our own individual persons. While I enjoy the theatre, my brother enjoys going to concerts of the musical artists he likes. I enjoy music and opera, but our musical tastes are different, just as we share things that we both enjoy and yet have things that we enjoy doing that are unique to each person (e.g., I enjoy doing calligraphy and crocheting, and my brother enjoys hockey and skating).
Sibling rivalry is as natural as breathing, but as a child, learning how to love another also seems to require guidance and attention from the parent or caregiver. Yet there appear to be personalities that are naturally more caring and loving, while some are born competitive and headstrong. It would be in a child’s best interest for their parents to nurture a love for their sibling, and I know that this is one of the many things our parents fostered in both of us.
A family is a team, and teamwork means cooperation, consideration, and care. No one has to go it alone (even if one is a single parent, there should be a good support system in place). A child should learn that being part of the family team means you are in this together. They need to be cheerleaders for each other. Teach by example, but also with words. Prompt children to encourage each other if someone’s having a bad day or facing a big test. Children can learn to be huge supporters of their siblings. Clue them into the needs of their siblings. It is a unique relationship. Siblings need to be allies for each other. Although outsiders can be fun to have over (friends, neighbors, other family), nothing can substitute for time alone with the family.
Parents should nurture each child’s talents without hurtful comparisons. I guess part of the point about my brother and me (like my niece and nephew now) is that even though we inherently share traits, we are our own individual persons, as are any siblings, and are able to express our talents and leanings. We both were given opportunities to try and experience new things. Also, when working with children, we celebrate differences and successes. Siblings will learn to love each other for their unique contributions to the family.
The Profound Emotion of Love
Love is the most profound emotion known to human beings. For most of us, a romantic relationship is one of the most meaningful things in our lives. But the ability to have a healthy, loving relationship is not innate. At one time or another, I am sure that many people have experienced a failed relationship, and we have to work consciously to master the skills necessary to make them flourish. With hard work and perseverance, we succeed.
Romance is an expression of one’s strong love or a deed and strong emotional desire to connect with another person intimately. However, there is also what some define as platonic love, which is more of a friendship than an emotional connection. This can be like the love a child has for a parent or a parent for a child. When one is truly in love, it is all-consuming. All thoughts and desires are of the other person. People do fall out of love if they were ever in love to begin with; in such cases, it can be called infatuation. Or maybe if it was real love, and the love and romance dissipated, they simply drifted apart. But the feelings and emotions come from deep within the core of one’s very being. Writing about love, such as through sonnets, poetry, and music, aids in expressing our feelings toward another person.
Young love is sometimes referred to as puppy love and is a new and scary experience, as the person has never felt anything like this before. It can blossom into so much more for its intended or leave just as quickly as it came, like a brook heading toward a large lake or ocean.
