Hi, welcome back to

your Daily Mindfulness.

In today's session, we're going

to talk about the relationship

between self-love and growth.

I see for a lot of people, this fear

that if I develop self-love, acceptance,

even compassion toward myself, I'm

going to lose my edge or I'm going

to no longer want to grow in my life.

I'll just passively resign to

what is here, because now I love

myself and no need to change.

Well, that's an interesting interpretation

and I'd like to dispel the myth

of that, which is very common and

pervasive, because self-love doesn't

mean we don't see room for growth.

It just means that our

feelings of worthiness are not

contingent upon that growth.

You can be massively hungry for

growth and massively filled with love.

The thing is a lot of times our growth,

we have a toxic relationship toward.

We're, we're growing.

We're doing things.

We're building things.

We're trying to change because we

hate ourselves or there's a feeling

of anxiety that if I don't do

this, I'm not going to be worthy.

And a lot of that is grounded in

childhood stuff, relationships

to our caregivers, our parents.

Feelings that were developed, that

I need to be this certain kind of

person in order to be worthy of love,

in order there in order to be safe.

But that's only one form of

motivation to change and grow.

And it's actually, it can be quite

a toxic one that can always leave

us feeling empty and unfulfilled.

There are other motivations for

growth that actually come when

we feel more self-love within us.

Love itself is a motivation for growth.

We see who we are right now.

We love who we are right now.

And we also realize like, Hey,

we, we can even become better.

We can, we can grow.

We can change.

And that can be motivated by love.

Compassion can be a motivator

for, for growth and for change.

Excitement, enthusiasm can be a

motivator for growth and change.

And even just the process of

growth can be inherently rewarding.

So in case there has been this fear

that I need to be anxious, or I need

to maybe not like myself in order to

want to grow and change, I just want

to let you know that, that that's

one form of motivating our growth and

change, but it's not the only one.

And that form can be quite toxic.

There's another form of compassion, of

love, of care, of energy, enthusiasm that

can also motivate us toward our goals.

And not only is it more sustainable,

but it feels a lot better.

We can be fulfilled and

growing in the process.

So I hope this gives you

something to think about.

We'll continue exploring how to develop

self-love in our meditation today.

But as always, just want to

thank you for your practice.

Thank you for your growth journey.

It's not just for you, it's for

your relationships, your community,

and our world at large, at large.

So I have a lot of appreciation

for you and let's settle

in for today's meditation.