What is Love, Really? There are so many topics
centered around love. Over the past ten years it has become common table talk to pass around the idea of self-love and personal intimacy, yet what exactly does By Meagan Fettes that mean? Although love is one of the most well-known ideas, its actual reality is fleeting to so many that desire to achieve it. It has become an unattainable experience as the grasping hands reach towards the unknown.
I remember when I heard the idea of practicing self-love for the first time. M y p al m s w e r e swea ti n g a s I sa t o n my Yoga mat diving into my reactions based on how I judged aspects of my life. Here I was in my first 200hr Yoga Teacher Training with my mind b l ow n ! T h e i m media te th ou gh ts raced through my brain, “self-love… What does that even mean? I thought it was selfish to love myself first? Am I sure I even deserve love… my love?” Now if I were to rewind even a few months before that, I was thick in the reality of drug and alcohol addiction, and even though I made the choice to take my life 21
What is Love, Really?
in another direction, how was I supposed to love myself for all the things I had done, what I put my family and friends through, and really, where do I even start? I realized the more I listened that I wasn’t alone. Every other student in that training struggled to love themselves or to even know what that love looks like. I went home that night, the idea still racing through my mind as I began to explore the concept and experiment with the idea of inviting self-love and personal intimacy into my life. Most articles on the Internet talked about baths, doing the things you love, dressing nice to boost your confidence so I dove right in… to the bath that is. That was NOT what I would call a self-love practice. I sat for 10 minutes in that first “self-love” bath judging every inch of my body- from my boobs, my stomach, my thighs… I mean there they were naked and just taunting me. I had failed. I was right back to feeling defeated and uncertain if I could ever master this whole concept at all or if I was even worth it in the first place. The next weekend I went back to the Yoga Teacher Training and we dove into ourselves further, exploring why we do the things we do, based on our belief systems
....and BOOM it hit me!
