Love is Light, an image I captured near my Arizona home.

What To Do If You Hate Yourself

Learning to Love All Takes a Lifetime of Daily Practice

There were many times I used to hate myself because of my fear of not being good enough. But over the years, I’ve learned a few things that have helped me be kinder and more accepting of myself and others.

Now that I’ve become a grandfather and observe our two sons with reverence for life and how precious it is, I can love the things I used to hate, especially myself.

You see, there’s a thing called Agape, the Greek word for unconditional love. You’re about to learn more about that, especially if you too often look in the mirror and hate yourself or other people, places, and things.

Self-View, Self-Worth, Self-Image As Kids

Remember what it feels like to hate not being the kid who fits in with the cool kids? Or the feeling of fear and self-loathing when you fail at anything? How about when you get rejected for saying or doing what you believed was right?

All of this ugly self-view happens because of how we see ourselves. How we see ourselves comes from our conditioning when we were kids. In other words, we get programmed by the people, places, and things we grew up around.