infiniteperspective.net

Let me ask you an oft-repeated yet not quite satisfactorily answered question: What is love? From the silly “love is like a bubblegum kung motapot makabuang*” to the biblical “love is patient, love is kind “,answers range from the inspirational to the downright mushy. Many books have already been written on the subject and still pens continue to churn as poets, novelists and artists try to understand this phenomenon. In the name of love, battles have been waged and lives have been lost. No other human emotion evokes such a powerful response.

Since love invariably means different things to different people, defining it would simply be putting love into a mold. So I won’t even attempt it. However, I’ll venture as far as this: A healthy body, mind and soul begin with a genuine love for self. Paradoxically, self-love is selfless.

I can only imagine the precise attention to detail God expended when he decided to create man. Although wrought in His image and likeness, each individual is distinct, matchless in the grace and beauty that He so lovingly shaped for each. And it is for this reason that we must love ourselves first of all. God fashioned us for a purpose and it is our duty to carry that out. How can we fulfill our diving mission if we abuse, neglect and mistreat our body and soul?
Self-love is simple. Yet it speaks of the kind of love that we are willing and are able to give to our fellow human beings. When we nourish our physical bodies, providing for it a balanced diet, adequate exercise and sufficient rest, we are nurturing it to perform its duties with love. When we constantly feed our minds with new information, challenging it to sort the good stuff from the bad and empowering it so that it does not atrophy, we are fostering in it a mindset of love. When we cultivate our spiritual consciousness, enabling it with the spirit of prayer and meditation, we are strengthening it to walk in the spirit of love. If we are able to successfully love ourselves, then we will be able to give the same measure of warmth and affection to others around us. That vim and vigor and zest for life and love becomes so contagious that we are able to create a wonderful ripple of this powerful human emotion.

Now we can’t do that if we constantly subject ourselves to all sorts of stressful situations, can we? Can we honestly say that we love ourselves when we continue to ingest all sorts of food that clog the arteries and cause all sorts of heart problems? Is it even fair for us to say that we love our families when we continue to smoke in the house and subject ourselves and our children to harmful cigarette smoke? Would it be right to work ourselves late into the night and neglect our children for that promotion? Self-love is absent here. If it is, then how can we give to others the love that we do not have for ourselves?

A healthy mind, a sound body, a wonderful soul, a harmonious relationship with others—all these are anchored on love. But love has to start somewhere. Wouldn’t it be great to let it start with you?

*kung motapot makabuang—if it sticks, it drives one crazy

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