Lived Experience Forum

[WIP]

I just saw the topic of this thread - need to read it all

However, at first glance My immediate thoughts are I have personally never had the priveledge of experiencing self love. During my childhood, my teens, early adulthood and now. Till this day, I HATE myself, Double HATE my body and the way that makes me think/feel. Physical illness contributes to this, but not anywhere near as bad as others. I hate myself and the thought of self love makes me pull away in disbelief

[Maggie]

I can relate @WIP . 🤗🤗

[Maggie]

I started meditating about 6 weeks ago, and self compassion comes up a lot. I began to wonder what the difference between self compassion, and self care are, or if there was a difference.

So I went searching and found this interesting. What do you think. ?

@Owlunar @WIP @Historylover @NatureLover 

https://medium.com/thrive-global/the-foundation-of-true-self-care-is-self-compassion-eced732fe0c8

[Historylover]

To be honest @Maggie I don't think about things that deeply.  Self care.  Self compassion.  I simply bundle them all up in the same category - Self respect.  Sending best wishes and respect, @Maggie.   I hope you are well and being kind to yourself.

[Owlunar]

Hi @Historylover @Maggie 

Thanks for your comments - I did read the link a couple of days back - and considered the subject - and it is an important subject

I think self-care could be the outward activity of caring for one's self - having enough respect for ourselves that we do the best in caring for the body we have and the personality we are developing. We eat a healthy diet, get enough rest, restrict unhealthy issues etc and also maintain healthy relationships and limit or exclude toxic people from our lives

And to do this we practise caring for ourselves mentally and manage our thoughts and basically treat ourselves as we would like other people to treat us - and this means - we don't let people treat us with disdain - we do our best to exclude vexatious spirits and expect the best from other people even if we don't get it and we treat ourselves with that respect - 

And yes - self-respect is the bottom line - whatever other people think of us is not at all our business - we have no control over what other people have going on in their heads - we only have control over how we feel and think about ourselves and giving ourselves a break is a big deal and important. 

The chances are pretty good if we think well of ourselves, go easy on ourselves, treat ourselves with respect then the world will be a better place 

Of course - bad things happen to good people - this is true - but we don't bring the bad things down upon ourselves if we are treating ourselves with self-respect, using self-care and self-compassion.

When we are caring for ourselves first, then it follows that our dealings with other people and what we do for them will be done out of love and not duty. 

Of course this isn't easy - I know that - but it is good to care and have compassion for ourselves - then at least one person in the universe loves us

All the best ladies

Dec

Of course - there is always something on line to help me communicate

[Owlunar]

Hi @BlueBay 

As promised I am tagging you to this thread on self-love and self-hatred. It's a long read and I haven't looked through it to see what other people have said but I have a good idea what I wrote

This might help you improve your ideas about yourself - perhaps it is easier to hate yourself than to love yourself but there is no need to always take the negative path. You can do better - I have every faith that you can improve your thoughts

Dec