Humanity Begins With Self-Love

Self-love is a direct expression of your love for The Divine
 
The practice of humanity requires a courageous expansion of our consciousness. This is because humanity must begin with self-love. Through the years, we have been erroneously conditioned that self-love is narcissistic, indulgent, even blasphemous. Self-love actually must precede love of God, especially if we perceive God (or the Divine, the Universe, the Spirit) to be an entity outside of ourselves.

If you believe each human being was made in the image and likeness of God, it follows that each of us is derived of God. Put another way, we each have been created in God-ness. If you believe, then, that you are derived of God, self-love is a direct expression of your love for God.

Instead, if you regard God as separate, distant, unknowable, and unfamiliar, but nevertheless worthy of your love, you can attempt to practice love for God while at the same time clinging to self-hatred or self-loathing. Any expression of hatred or loathing casts a shadow that otherwise would be illuminated by the light of love. And the more anybody tries to love and to hate simultaneously, the longer the shadow becomes. Ultimately, this is not sustainable, for love cannot be expressed in a silo. Loving a distant God while loathing your ever-present self is an outdated notion worthy only of being let go.

On the contrary, the moment we open our hearts to the free flow of love, the walls that have imprisoned our fragile egos rightly come crashing down. The rumble of that is terrifying, as is the exposure of our souls from every angle. However, the first breath of liberation is the freshest air one will ever inhale. And the humorless joke all along was that the prison was of our own making.

Therefore, self-love is a courageous act, because we must reject any notion that self-love is somehow wrong or disconnected from the love of God. In truth, we can only love God and love others when we each begin with self-love. The domino effect of this bliss, as the consistent, unapologetic practice of self-love will soon ripple to love for family and friends, then to love for neighborhood and community, which then ripples out to everyone else we encounter no matter where.
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Ultimately, our love for all of these will ripple with unstoppable power to those we will never meet but who always exist with us in Universal Oneness. This unconditional inclusiveness is the practice of true humanity.