Yanni's Blog

What does it mean to love one self or to love another person? As I have journeyed through my life, I have come to the following understanding of what it means to truly love:

But what does it mean “to be present” for yourself?

As far as I am concerned, you are your most “significant other.” So, in order to love yourself, you must be fully present for yourself. You must be “listening” to your Self. You must be honoring yourself. You must be accepting and appreciating yourself unconditionally. This is love: “Being totally present for your self” with no judgments, no analysis, no preconceived beliefs, concepts or ideas of what you “should” be or do--just an acceptance and gratitude for who you are now.

Giving this kind of love and presence to yourself is the key to Self-Mastery and happiness; it is actually “the key” to Life. “Being present,” in this way, I believe, is the answer to the perennial question of “How do I truly love myself or another person?”

So, to be in an authentic relationship with yourself or with another person requires that you “be present” in the way I have described above. Otherwise, all you are doing is judging and analyzing yourself or another with your mind, but you are not “being present” with your heart.

The mind, through its judgments and analysis, creates duality and separation, the heart naturally seeks unity and oneness. The mind creates a sense of “being other than;” the heart, on the other hand, “becomes one with” its object of attention and “knows” by “identifying with” it. It knows from “the inside out.”

This is the key to mastering the art of love.

Carl Rogers, the noted psychologist wrote in this regard:

So, love is simply “being present” and listening with your heart and not judging with your head!

This is Part I of a two part blog.