THE HEART OF LOVE

On a scale of 1 to 10 (with 10 highest), to what extent do you see and love yourself as a masterpiece unfolding?

You may find yourself resisting the idea of seeing yourself as a masterpiece, but think of yourself at conception – before the complexities of the world set in. Consider your purity, innocence, beauty and fullness of light at that time. How masterful is that! Yet, our light dimmed as we entered the world and took on socialization, repression and defense mechanisms, hiding our light. Now is a good moment to recapture the masterpiece you truly are.

As you hold that lovely image of yourself as a pre-world masterpiece, see now that you are not a finished work. You are a masterpiece in progress. Michelangelo left unfinished works of enormous raw slabs of marble with beautiful images emerging. These masterpieces were already evident though the works were unfinished.

Think of yourself as an emerging masterpiece. You are being carved out, shaped and formed by your life experiences, relationships, values and choices, but you are already exquisitely beautiful right now.

What prevents you from seeing yourself as a masterpiece? What is the inner talk that would prevent you from seeing the real and beautiful you? You need not consult anyone else. You alone are the key.

Let’s go on a tour. Begin by thinking of all the things you really love about yourself. Go in depth. Make a list and fill the whole page. No doubt, you’ll come across a few things (or avalanche) of things you remember that you don’t like about yourself. Now it’s time to move on to offering yourself plenty of forgiveness for the times you didn’t know better than to act or say something you now regret or, at the time, you thought wasn’t important.

What have you learned? Consider all the works of art drawn out or chiseled most every day and then discarded. They didn’t hit the masterpiece mark. Now, consider the enormous amount of time and effort spent pouring in the lessons learned from missing the mark of masterpiece – even for Monet and Rembrandt. Every work was not a masterpiece. Many of the works were steps leading to their greatest works. It’s the same for you. What you are presently learning from making mistakes and doing it better next time is causing you to live as your finest work each day. Even though you may not stay motivated every single day, your consistent effort is what pays off in the end and is steadily carving out your masterpiece self.

It is so easy to see ourselves as unworthy. Living in self rejection and self judgment means you deny yourself joy, passion, dreaming and self expression. Rather than depriving yourself of the self love you deserve, give yourself support, acknowledgment, encouragement and praise. This is not about ego. This is about genuine love. You are worthy!

If you find that you can easily accept others without negative judgment, yet struggle to accept yourself, practice becoming an expert at both.

One way you can practice this love skill is by journaling. If you don’t care for journaling, just use the skill of self observation. In a simple notebook, journal what you did today that you liked. Let this self-love feeling sink in. Notice how this new energy feels. Let your heart and mind explore all the new circuitry to find this place of acceptance again and again. You are beginning a new habit of watching yourself rise higher and giving yourself credit as an unfolding masterpiece.

At the same time, notice your new, positive inner talk. At first it may seem awkward, but your goal is to accept yourself without negative judgment and allow this to become a natural way of living and regarding yourself.

Practice constructive self judgment where you objectively look at your life to make better choices. Just as scientists in the laboratory observe an experiment to learn more, objectively look at any negative areas of your life to learn more. Rather than looking at your life as moments of pain or failure and then beating yourself up, use your energy to learn and grow towards healing solutions. And give yourself credit for all your beautiful efforts. You are an unfolding masterpiece!

Let self evaluation be a positive learning experience rather than an opportunity to say, “I can’t do anything right! I hate myself!” Learn to love yourself even as you are changing and evolving. Look at yourself as a beautiful work of art and with grand approval. Experience the happiness of seeing yourself as the best you so far.

Practice getting good at accepting yourself. Look deep within and continuously acknowledge: “I may make mistakes, but I am beautiful within my heart and I am becoming even more beautiful as I continue learning and growing. I see and love myself as love’s masterpiece in progress.” Welcome to the heart of love.

© 2006 Scott & Shannon Peck

Dr. Scott Peck & Shannon Peck are co-founders of TheLoveCenter, a non-profit educational organization dedicated to “Raising universal love awareness & Awakening a world of Love Masters.” This column is based on their new book, “Love Skills for Personal & Global Transformation: Secrets of a Love Master” available at bookstores & www.Amazon.com and also at www.TheLoveCenter.com. For more love, & information about our new School of Love, visit our website, email TheLoveCenter@aol.com or call (858) 792-6018.