Week 6 of the Master Keys Mastermind Alliance Experience (MKMMA) experience ushered in a new month, a new chapter in The Greatest Salesman in the World by Og Mandino, and a new scroll: The Scroll Marked II.
“I will greet this day with love in my heart. And most of all I will love myself.”
~ Og Mandino
We added in a nightly reading of Dale Wimbrow’s The Gal in the Glass. Each night, I read it out loud just before bed, look myself dead in the eye and see what the “Gal in the Glass” thinks of my efforts for the day. I finish the poem stating “I love you, Lori King!”
If you have never looked at yourself in the mirror, eye to eye and said I love you, I encourage you to do so today. With ENTHUSIASM! Self-love is GOOD love!
I’m reminded of the saying “put your own oxygen mask on first,” an airplane metaphor that basically means we cannot help, take care of, or love others if we don’t start by helping, taking care of, and loving our self.
Self-love is the act of taking care of yourself, which includes your body and your health. Self-love has respect for yourself and your own well-being. Self-love takes responsibility for your own happiness. Self-love accepts and embraces all of you: past, present and future. This kind of love goes beyond self-confidence and is truly beautiful, overflowing and spilling out onto everyone we encounter.
Self-love does not always come easy for me. I find I can be highly critical of myself, instead of offering myself grace and forgiveness.
And are not love and forgiveness intimately linked?
The Law of Forgiveness states that
To access the Divine and connect the subconscious to the Omnipotent, Omniscient and Omnipresent Creator we must forgive everyone and anyone to clear the channel. There can be no connection to the Divine mind where anger or resentment against a brother or sister, justified or not, exists.
The Bible says it this way:
But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love. (1 John 4:8)
“And you must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength. The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. No other commandment is greater than these.” (Mark 12: 30-31)
This class has taught me to keep a dictionary and thesaurus close by. So often I skip over words that I don’t know or am not sure of. Now, I find myself looking words up. Even the ones I think I know like love:
Love:
~ strong affection for another arising out of kinship or personal ties
~ attraction based on sexual desire
~ affection based on admiration, benevolence, or common interests
~ warm attachment, enthusiasm, or devotion
~ unselfish loyal and benevolent concern for the good of another:
In the thesaurus we find a plethora of synonyms to include affection, appreciation, devotion, fondness, friendship, infatuation, lust, passion, respect, tenderness, allegiance, cherishing, delight, and enjoyment.
As I read through the Scroll Marked II, Mandino writes that with no other qualities but love, we can become great salesman. Without love, we will remain mere peddlers in the marketplace. And aren’t we all salesman in one way or another? (If you’ve ever been on a date, you are a salesman!)
Wimbrow writes
“For it isn’t your Father, or Mother, or Partner for life,
Who judgement upon you must pass.
The person whose verdict counts most in your life
Is the gal staring back from the glass.”
As a reformed people-pleaser, this one hit me square on the nose! At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what others think. The person I must always be true to is ME! I honor the gal in the glass each day with love in my heart.
As I apply these readings and good habits to my life, I reinforce my focus and attention on love for God, mankind and myself. The more I think about love, the more it grows! And that’s the Law of Growth: whatever we think about grows. What we forget atrophies.
Imagine if every human on the planet did this! What a giant love fest of a world we could live in!
After all, it’s all about love!
Lori,
Your blog was amazing and was very informative. I enjoyed your pictures, your statement on love and your scripture verses. Thanks for reading my blog. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving.
Lori you are so on point here. We look in the mirror all the time but taking time to really stop, look ourselves in the eye with naked honesty – that takes a calm core. You nailed it!
Love your neighbor as you love yourself. For me, the degree I can love my neighbor is the degree I can love myself. You can’t “bear another’s burden” unless you are strong enough to do so. If you don’t love yourself, I believe one lives with fearfulness and insecurity being controlling emotions and love loses traction.
I enjoyed this post. You are a reformed people-pleaser. I am a recovering people-pleaser. This class is helping me to look inward and I am pumped!!!
I always like to think about it like, we need to make sure we fill ourselves first and let what we become overflow and fill others. I love your blog.. ! 🙂
Great that you an Jim can help so many people it’s great to read all the people you help can’t wait to work you an Jim
You are tying it all together Lori. Great job of pulling together all the ways love and loving yourself are springboards to happiness.
Thank you Lori. You beautifully express your experience – I love you – being able to communicate that self-love is so important. You must have it in you to give it – you have Love in you – thank you so much for sharing it and shining 🙂
Gratitude to you and your kind words NatlieZ!
Thank you so much Noelle! It was such a delightful surprise! And yes, nice to connect with fellow tribe members! #gratitude
Lori I was so excited to see you had the featured blog on the Webinar. Yay, finally I found an acquaintance in MKE. Of course I had met you just prior to the webinar in our zoom tribe meeting. Still it was fun seeing your blog and having a connection. Congratulations on all of your successes. May you have many more.
It always amazes me how much I must be paying attention to the things I do, for when I look in the mirror I can never hide anything from myself and immediately know why I am looking at myself a certain way or I feel the way I do. The gal in the glass is so honest, true and trustworthyI can’t help but love her and want to be someone she can trust as well. Her best friend.
Great insight Kendra! she does know! she is true and trustworthy! She is my best friend! THANK YOU!
Lori – I loved reading your post! Identified with chatting with the “guy/gal in the glass.” I do it all the time. Have fun and enjoy your MKE ride!
Dennis recently posted: https://masterkey.life/power-of-focus/
Thank you so much Dennis! I’m blow away by these comments! SO neat to know everyone is experiencing some of the same profound and powerful things! #gratitude
I still sob when I say I love you, NOW I also respect that gal in the glass she loves herself
Love and respect go hand in hand! CONGRATS! She deserves your love!
I love, used the word intentionally, the connections you made and how you linked everything together. I also have to thank you for reminding me that I was supposed to say: “I love you Marcos Espinosa” at the end.” I guess that doesn’t come easy.
Self love is great love Marcos! We are all in this together! I actually wrote it on my paper so I won’t forget!
Love: A great post. Thank you Lori!
Thanks Joseph! I appreciate you and your comment!
Loving the Gal in the Mirror …
Me2 Cindy! Reminds me to stay true to me and my heart and to go within!
Love is the most powerful force! Thank you for sharing your thoughts.
So true! Thank you for your comment!
WOW! This was a powerful and superbly expressed reflection – thank you for sharing 🙂
Thank you so much! Appreciate the read and comment!
Thank you Janet!
Great post Lori xx
This is a great blog! I can super identify with never looking in my own eyes and saying, “I love you, Davene” I still remember the day it sank in and starting sobbing. How bittersweet that feeling was… Mahalo for sharing.
WOW! Thank you Davene! #Gratitude
Honoring that gal can feel weird to being with – but she’s your very best friend!
Thanks for the reminder Nancy! She is indeed!
Great post, excellent points and connections. Juneta’s MKE Blog
Thank you @MKE_Juneta!