I had in mind to write a lovely essay for you on magical consciousness and the benefits of previous experience of psychedelics and/or manic states. But my office is already overheating and I must go and recline in a shaded hammock.
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Instead, I pose this question:
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What if ‘loving yourself’ meant actually *loving* all of those icky parts? Not loving yourself in spite of them – not loving yourself in order to ‘release’ them – but actually loving them;
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Loving your struggling business; loving your emotional instability, even the fear and despair; loving the nagging pain in your hip; loving your propensity for rage; loving your apparent inability to apply yourself to that nagging work task;
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Loving your inability to muster any motivation for housework; loving your daily frustration at the impossibility of juggling work and childcare over summer; loving your envy, greed and sloth;
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Loving and celebrating that darkest part of you that revels in difficulty, disappointment and struggle with no interest in the ease and grace that your ego constantly searches for.
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Does that feel impossible? Or very much within reach?
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Because I promise you that this is when magic happens.