I still remember the time I used to go for hiking in the mountains, with my older, wiser friend of twenty. With a bag full of essentials, we would set up a tent, sit by the stream, and would watch the water swirl around the rocks, contemplating life.
She would tell me about life, the ups, and downs, the traumas, and celebrations. At one point, she described how she was learning to be her own best friend because that was a lesson that she had learned the hard way.
I remember how that talk about “self-love” broke me into a sob. It resonated with how I felt; I was the furthest thing from being my own best friend. That day, we had a long and deep conversation on self-love, freeing ourselves from an inner judge, and embracing our flawed selves.
I decided to do a write-up on my journey to achieving self-love and inner wisdom, primarily through meditations but also via affirmation reinforcements and training our minds to be tuned towards it.
The R.A.I.N Meditation for Self-Love
The lack of self-love is truly an epidemic today. Hundreds of people suffer from this personal deficiency, which usually leads to feelings of unworthiness and insecurity. The key point, however, is to recognize that there is something fundamentally wrong with you – something that leaves you in a trance of self-doubt and diffidence.
The idea of embracing our flaws and showering self-love on ourselves overshadows the concept of inherently correcting our errors. Before you should be changing yourself, you should be fully in love with yourself and must only be changing your patterns because YOU prefer it so.
The RAIN of self-compassion, thus, ideally precedes any other approach or mindset, driven or not driven by judgment from others.
The acronym “RAIN” is an easy-to-remember tool that you can practice for any meditation routine.
- R stands for recognizing what is going on;
- A stands for allowing the experience to be there, just as it is;
- I stands for investigating with interest and care;
- N stands for nourishing self-compassion.
You can either use RAIN as a stand-alone meditation or purchase this super-effective meditating guide that connects you with your Divine Essence in just 30 minutes.
When I realized that I fundamentally lacked what people called a relentless, fiercely loyal love to my own self, despite all hidden and obvious flaws, despite all the mistakes that I regrated, despite a traumatic childhood and duly affected adulthood; I downloaded this meditation guide to “Merging with Your Divine Essence” and that was the best decision I had made for myself!
The Basis Of Any Spiritual Practice Is Self-Love
Self-love and self-worth are interconnected. To be more precise, self-love and inner wisdom are even more intricately linked.
Whether you are seeking emotional or physical healing, the first and undoubtedly the most important step to take is holding yourself with compassion and love.
Think of it like bread rising in an oven. The most important ingredient for it to rise is yeast. Similarly, compassion and love are the essential ingredients for healing; without them, the heart doesn’t open or heal. When your heart isn’t receptive to love or healing, the path to inner wisdom gets blurred in the process. Nothing else falls into line.
Here’s how self-love and inner wisdom go hand-in-hand.
To cultivate Inner Wisdom, you should:
1. Know Who You Are
We’ve heard of this, right? The RAIN meditation’s first crucial step requires you to recognize who you are. This is the roadway to self-love, which inevitably leads to awakening your inner wisdom.
2. Honor Your Daily Practices
When you’re in love with yourself, you will give yourself time. You will craft unique, self-care routines. These will help you calm the chaos in your mind and rejuvenate your body and spirit. The key, however, is crafting daily practices and looking forward to the routine, instead of dreading it. When you realize that this is your sacred time, you will trigger your wisdom to come to the surface.
3. Make Your Social Circle Something You’re Proud Of
The third step to pulling out your inner wisdom is being surrounded by the right people. People who encourage your opinions, complement your ideas and challenge your wisdom. This is also linked to self-love because when you care about your well-being, you’ll mechanically filter your friends’ list and cut off toxic, regressive people.
4. Connect With Your Passion & Purpose
A vital part of self-love is coming to terms with your vital, inner gifts. You have to recognize the treasure in yourself, and that’s only possible when you open your heart to self-love. Recognizing your talents and skills allows you to tap into deep, inner wisdom and full potential. By activating your passion and purpose, you create more flow and success in your life. The enabler, however, is self-love.
In conclusion, some effective, easy-to-apply tips for cultivating self-love, and through it, inner wisdom are:
- Cherish gratitude
- Embrace who you really are
- Set boundaries
- Be vulnerable
- Observe
- Forgive
- Speak to yourself as you would speak to your beloved
- Ignore society’s expectations
- Experience joy in alignment with your true self
- Be authentic
- Spread love to receive it back from the Universe
What else would you add to this list? Let’s share some more tips!
