Lily M. Cooper
Why do we accept the love we think we deserve? Because in a world where everything is negotiable, everything can be bought and sold, love is still an enigma. Those who practice the Golden Rule, live by it and make it work in their lives. Do you accept the love you think you deserve from others?
Why do we accept the love we think we deserve? Because everyone is taught to but if we are treated with kindness and respect even while growing up then we will realise it is all that really deserve. We will each have our own personal interpretation of it, but as humans we all desire the love, respect, acceptance and approval of others. It is the greatest gift we can give to one another, regardless of race, colour or religion. We all deserve to be loved, all of us were made in the image and likeness of God.
As individuals we should be striving to achieve self-love: The more we accept the love we think we deserve the more we will realise how lucky we are to be alive. How we treat ourselves and treat others will reflect greatly on our lives, so why do not all of us to practice self-care as a lifestyle? Why not take the time to practice and teach ourselves to be self-aware?
Those who are successful in life are those who practice self-care: and take the time to listen to themselves to listen to the consequences of their actions and how they affect those around them. They also understand that they cannot always be perfect but they can learn to control their behaviour so that they can still treat others with kindness, respect and consideration, but they are also aware of when they hurt others without meaning to, and remind themselves that the price they pay for those good feelings is the truth of who they are. And these good feelings that they gain from others coming to treat them with respect make them feel amazing, and this is something that we all want to achieve.
So, what about Stephen Chbosky? Does he deserve our love? Not necessarily, although I do believe he did set himself some impressive personal standards when he wrote his play, The Heartbreak Kid, and even if he didn’t mean to hurt people’s feelings with it, he did. I know that when I’m having a bad day I look at some of his work and I think to myself “wow, this guy really knows how to get it right.”
Some of us need to learn better ways of looking at the world: and accepting things we can’t control and then working to change ourselves so that we can accept more easily what we can control. Love is about surrendering to the energy of a situation and learning to let go of our own fears and our own opinions in order to be free and fully present in that moment. Sometimes that means stepping back to see a situation from another person’s perspective, and other times it means listening to the energy of the situation itself and seeing the gift and quality of life being offered to you instead of dismissing it and being stuck in a rut. Sometimes it means stepping outside of our comfort zone to accept love and find ways of allowing it to manifest in different ways for us.
Learning how to give love to someone else is one of the most important things we can do as human beings, because loving someone doesn’t just make us nice, it makes us strong and healthy inside.
