I’m always surprised when I ask my Higher Consciousness (HC) what I’m meant to blog on and it gives me an answer that is not what I was thinking at all. However, when I then toss around the idea, I realize a whole trail of synchronicities throughout the week pointed to the topic all along and it’s such a better idea than the one my mind was thinking up. Two points for the HC.

That trail this week has lead me to self-love and its close cousin self-trust. When I look at someone who seems to have it all together, who seems brimming with self-confidence, and learn they have such a strong core of self-doubt, I’m always surprised. If life has taught me anything, though, it’s that things are not as they seem. If you don’t love yourself in all your manifestations at your core, it makes it hard to trust yourself…and, in turn, others.

The roots of self-doubt run deep and are planted early. As children, many are told “be careful,” “listen to your parents who know better than you,” and other similar messages that make young people question their own judgement. As the child grows, well-intentioned parents, schools, churches, and other institutions tell a child what to believe, how to believe it, what success looks like, and how it needs to be achieved. When the soul reaches adulthood, it is told what to do by bosses, market trends, “crises” of many kinds, and so forth. It’s no wonder self-doubt (and subsequently, self-love because I think they’re bonded like that) feel like they’re missing in so many people’s lives.

I love Louise Hay’s mirror work where she has (for many, many years) had people look into a mirror on a daily basis and say, “I love you. I really, really love you.” When I suggest that to a person I feel may benefit from it, I see them look at me sideways and roll their eyes. I’ve done it and it works. (Yah, you feel goofy. So the heck what?)

I wonder why the resistance. Is it a family of origin issue where the mother told them they were conceited if they focused on themselves and their own self love? To me, there’s no better way to care for those who touch your field than by tending to your own junkyard and cleaning it out. Nobody likes a rabid dog growling at them through a chainlink fence.

And loving yourself, while we’re on this, is not about a gazillion selfies on IG or Facebook. (Please make it stop.) It’s about keeping your thoughts in the higher frequencies of love and light. It’s about giving your body the rest it needs. It’s about listening to your body through physical symptoms, your emotions, your spirit, your relationships. They’re all jumping up and down and waving their hands in the air.

Here’s what I know: until we each take charge of our own self-care and self-love, rewriting all those old programs that need rewriting, we messy up our energy fields with icky stuff. That icky stuff then feeds over into other people’s energy fields and ickies up their stuff. We each individually have a responsibility to ourselves and to all those around this to clear up that ick.

But how do we know the syllabus for our particular Ick 101? It’s like Dorothy Gale discovers after the whole Oz dream–it all begins with each of us in our own backyard. Each of us has to get quiet and ask our Master Teacher (however that appears to you–Jesus, God, Buddha, St. Germain, Paramahansa Yogananda, Dreams, Lao Tzu, Allah, Archangel Michael, Quantum Physics–the list is endless). Every single person has that burning light inside that knows all the answers that person needs to know for their unique journey to be traveled as only they can.

What’s not to love about that?