We have a tenuous relationship with ourselves. Very conditional, as if we were in a constant state of probation. Have you noticed? Conditional love: part of the human condition.
I was reading the The Golem and the Jinni: A Novel, by Helene Wecker, and found myself getting into her golem-philosophy, that went something like this,
Since so many of us have it, can’t you just say it is the way things are, and not about freedom or fairness?
Wecker in such eloquence ironically describes the human condition from the story of two inhuman beings.
The New York Times, PATRICIA COHEN, describes it as,
When they are later confronted by the evil power who controls their fates, they discover that the ultimate expression of free will may lie in the embrace of limitations.
In considering our limitations in loving our own self, this idea can be useful to come to terms with the day in and out internal conflict of loving what is imperfect and distasteful, with what we would otherwise rather not identify with, and with the acts of friendship toward this seemingly inhuman part of our selves. In embracing our limitations, we may find less conflict in loving Me, less conditioning, or perhaps a shorter probation each day. We may experience the probation differently, Chava, The Golem, when we say, “It just is this way with all of us. I have the community of humanity.”
Getting into the space of where our “tenuous bond” between what we love and would otherwise not love about ME, in fact diminishes the frailty and increases the strength in our personal journey. Rather than putting us into further danger of internal conflict and self-loathing, it allows us to experience what will happen from and in the company of the tension.
More specifically, in brain health, getting into the space of our conditional love for our self, allows us to do things like seek medical treatment when needed, ally with help, with medical treatments that once repulsed us, with something as formulated as putting a pill in our mouth seven days a week indefinitely. Or another treatment, such as ECT.
We are conditional with ourselves. It is part of our human condition. That is pretty close to, “Normal.”
Question: How often are you aware of your own difficulty loving yourself, your Me? What improves this? Why does difficulty with loving Me recur and recur without end? Please tell us your story.
Self-Care Tip: Get into the tenuous space between the “good and bad” of Me where you are normal.
Related articles
- Conquer It (curryarts.wordpress.com)
- Tension between camps 2013/02/16
- I Love. ~ Steve Bearman (elephantjournal.com)
- Unconditional Love: Reality or Myth? (blogher.com)
- What I Know (samsviewreviews.wordpress.com)
Without limitations or boundaries there is no freedom. Ask any addict or alcoholic or prisoner.
Freedom in the Christian framework is not a matter of choosing this or that. If one commits to Christ there is only one path, to walk in His Light. Freedom means liberation from choice.