Self Love Escalation

This is an exercise I accidentally discovered many years ago and it’s become an all time favorite. The goal is to notice resistance to total self love and acceptance. Sometimes, the resistance is obvious, sometimes it’s subtle.

Bringing awareness to such resistance and engaging with it through writing has led me to a quality of self acceptance and self love that feels solid and deeply grounded. I hope it will do the same for you!

Exercise

Write out escalating self love statements such as:

• “I accept myself.”
• “I accept myself as I am.”
• “I accept myself exactly as I am, right now.”
• “I love myself.”
• “I love and accept myself exactly as I am, right now.”
• “I deeply and completely love and accept myself, exactly as I am, right now.”
• …

Notice any resistance that comes up.

If there’s part of you that feels resistance or starts bringing up conditions (e.g. “I would love myself if I just lost some weight first…”), examine this with further writing.

• What would happen if I allowed myself to fully love and accept myself even though I have this flaw / haven’t achieved this thing yet?
• What is the fear behind this?
• Does this “rule” apply to other people as well or just myself?