The author of Be Here Now, Ram Dass, has inspired and created giant waves of consciousness awakening throughout the west. He has become widely well known for studying the mystical and therapeutic benefits of hallucinogenic drugs such as LSD and Psychlocibin.
Ram Dass made an incredible and heartfelt impact in his life with countless projects and contributions such as founding the human kindness foundation. This foundation worked to offer spiritual teachings in prisons in the prison-ashram project and co-founded the Seva Foundation, which helped blind people in developing countries.
Social Standards
One of the first things Ram Dass says when asked how to love yourself more is to rephrase the question into “how can I accept myself more”. This stems from the fact that through the way we are raised we learn certain qualities about us are wrong.
This begins in the way our parents teach us in order for us to have socialized behavior. They guide us to be able to function in the conditioned society and we begin learning that at our core some part of us is wrong.
Through this, we begin learning to judge ourselves and begin naturally forming a resistance to certain parts of ourselves. If you want to learn more about removing self-judgment we have 5 techniques for you to try here.
Accepting Yourself
One of the first things we do when we see any other person is judge them. Ram Dass explains this is due to how we were conditioned in order to be socialized as children.
We judge other people in order to find value in ourselves. This even goes down to the specific things we judge people for. Ram Dass teaches this by humorously mentioning noticing someone having more hair because that is something his perspective focuses on due to his receding hairline
He gives the advice to apply the lens we view nature through to ourselves. Notice when you view nature do you look at trees and think that one is better than the other, it is slimmer, or that one is more worthy of my love than the other.
We look at nature with a very clear lens. We allow it to be natural and do not apply expectations to it. Commonly nature is also the place where people feel the most themselves as well.
When we apply the perspective of looking at nature to ourselves and other people we take off the label of what is right and wrong. Enjoy our favorite Louise Hay affirmations here.
Ram Dass Answers How To Love Oneself
In this video attached below Ram Dass explains his perspective on how to love yourself more. He speaks very clearly on even his own journey of accepting his learned “faults” and risking sharing his whole humanness as Ram Dass, someone who we identify with being pure love and transcending the human experience.
Instead he inspires us to love ourselves more by appreciating our humanness and not denying it in order to connect to your inner essence of god. That the unconditional love is actually within this place.
Grow Your Self-Love
Louise Hay is a metaphysical author and teacher of self-love, affirmations, and how to heal the body through shifting our beliefs. You can find her guided meditation here for self-love or read about some of her self-love philosophies here!
