Loving Yourself

Loving Yourself

woman hugging herself

397-largeIt was the end of a long day. I’m nowhere near being a computer techie, but I decided that I could follow a step by step youtube video to build this website. After way too many hours of slogging it out, it was going pretty well. I was proud of myself. I could see results. And then, I forgot to update what I was working on. Easy mistake to make. But I did it a second time, and to all appearances, it looked like I had lost everything.

I watched myself as the expletives—directed at myself—came out of my mouth. How could I be so stupid! What is wrong with me!? What made me think I could do this on my own. What an idiot! I was withering in my self-judgment and condemnation.

Admittedly, I was at the end of my tether, totally stressed out by pushing myself beyond my capacities. And yet from whence this voice that was so unmerciful?

Do you know this voice? If my wife had come to me having done something like this, I would have held her close, tried to calm her down. I would have asked her if she wanted me to take a look. No doubt some comforting words. Do you know what it’s like to treat yourself in a way that you’d never treat somebody you loved?

Think about that last sentence for a moment, because the issue really is about self-love and compassion. Unmerciful self-punishment isn’t natural. It’s learned. Maybe in the home growing up. Or at school. Or playing sports. The earlier we were told, directly or with gestures, that we are hopeless, no good for nothing wastes of space, the more impressionable and therefore the deeper the message goes.

If we shamed for making “mistakes” (by whose standards?), or for failing to live up to the (often unspoken) expectations of those in authority, we learn to internalize the voice of judgment. We become our own worst enemies. When we make a mistake—usually trivial to an outside observer—we default to a shame response, only this time we self-administer the shame. By the time we’re adults we don’t need anybody else to condemn us. We’re experts ourselves.

One of the central goals of a psychotherapeutic journey is to bring to consciousness the historical voices of condemnation, to get them outside of us where we can look at them objectively, and come to understand how unfair and unnecessary were the voices of condemnation. We understand that this trauma of hatred has bwoman hugging herselfeen passed down for generations, and we’re only its latest recipient. And…we become motivated to end it, here and now.

We do that by developing compassion for the little guy or girl inside of us that was so shamed. My mentor, Andrew Feldmar, points out that if we were given tasks or experienced expectation—covert or overt—that were beyond our developmental level, our only recourse is to experience shame as a signal that we’ve been pushed too far. If the signal is not picked up on, the shame becomes entrenched, and we feel that we are bad. Knowing this we can begin to love ourselves again, see our “mistakes” and failures for what they are—evolutionary attempts to take our next, best step. We can learn to “fail bravely”, and love ourselves for the exhibiting the courage to try new things and risk new behaviours.

I distinctly remember the moment when I felt self-compasion come on line. I was outside in the pitch dark, lying on my back, looking up at the clear skies. The stars seemed like my allies, shining love down on me. I had been intentionally allowing some very difficult memories to surface, and then it happened. I felt such deep compassion for myself. I imagined holding myself. Words of comfort flowed from my lips. The weight of the world lifted. I felt, for the first time in my life, that the universe was for me. When the voice of self-judgment drops away, a natural love toward self and other arises.

It should be apparent that self-love is not narcissistic. It’s actually the remedy for narcissism. As long as we’re unsure of our belovednessd, we’ll recruit the whole world, over and over again, in the hopeless project of proving that we matter. We will never be able to see the world clearly, but only as an object that we hope will fill our unconscious deficit. This is why self-love is the root of healing. It breaks the desperate cycle of feeling we need to prove ourselves as worthy.

Bruce Sanguin Psychotherapist

Written by Bruce Sanguin

7 thoughts on “Loving Yourself”

  1. Bruce, thank you for sharing this journey. It is a rich and generous gift. Wisdom ripples and love splashes. Lovely.
    ~ Nancy

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  2. A very helpful article Bruce, thank you. I’ve just finished your book Dismantled and for me it was more an experience than just a great book. I’m still integrating 14 Aya ceremonies (2 lots of 7 over a 12 month period) along with help from other entheogens and holotropic breathwork and your chat with James Jesso came along at just the right time. This is incredibly deep work and I’m so grateful for your contributions. Your blog today is so timely as my own process seems to be emerging from the deep grief I’ve been experiencing about the loss of myself so long ago. I’ve had moments of profound compassion arise (one triggered by your poem Love Everything You Do) but I know there’s more to come. Gratitude and blessings to you Bruce.

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  3. Bruce, I know that compared to some I had it easy. Nevertheless as I read you I find myself nodding or holding my breath as I identify with the experience of being ” good for nothing”.
    Thankfully I’ve been fortunate to have a very whole life partner who has borne with my idiosyncratic breakdowns and “spit the dummies”!
    In the seventies I self medicated with way too much psilocybin, LSD, and THC to the end That though I was convinced that everything was (is) connected I was in search of the lost connection. I had no guide nor mentor and did not know how to use the experiences I was having. My impressions were that the only way to find out was to “pass over” and something always stopped me from succeeding. Thankfully.
    I’m almost ready to revisit that time and discover and unravel the tangle that almost ended me in the psych ward!
    Thank you for sharing your dismantling, we’ve just received the book in the mail today and look forward with a bit of a tremble to exploring its pages. I feel that you Are a safe person with whom perhaps down the track I can do some unravelling. I have actually been able to start even with what I have read so far. Thank you.

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    • Thanks Maria, when it comes to heartbreak I’m not sure that there are degrees. It’s just heartbreak. Thank you for sharing Maria. Let me know how the book “goes down”.

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