As a note, I strongly urge you to make sure you love yourself before you do this. See the prior post.
SO.....Imagine you are a stuck on an island with one person. That person is the most annoying, horrible, cruel individual you have ever known. Regardless, you two are on this island together for a few years.
During that time, despite your differences, you get to talking. You share who you are, what you believe, what your lives were like, how you were raised…and gradually you really get to deeply know each other. Do you think it’s fairly probable that if you knew this person’s story – everything about them….EVERYTHING…that you would understand why they are the way they are? And if you understood that, couldn’t you see who they REALLY are, that is, the person they would be if those awful events didn’t shape them into the person you know? And if you really understood who they truly are….could you love that part of them? Maybe not forgive them for the rest, or even accept what they are or did…but just love that part of them that really IS them?
Of course you can. Because there is nothing at stake. Love is not always about complete acceptance and adoration. Love can just be about seeing someone’s true self, and loving that piece of them. That little child before all the crap made them into this awful adult. Because they WANTED to be that happy but it was stolen from them. Unconditional love is about putting aside what someone has become, and just loving who they could have been (or who they truly are). And by the way, that offering of love to them is this glimmer of light that might just help them be a better person…but even if it doesn’t, offering them love makes the world a better place.
The thing is, you were able to love them because you knew their story. Everyone has a story. Everyone was once some little child who was very innocent and wonderful. What they grew into was a result of their environment. The darkness that overcame them and made them less than wonderful, well that was the stuff they couldn’t escape. And they tried. Ponder this - do you really need to know their story in order to love them, or can you just accept that there IS a story, and go beyond that and just love them for what they could be? By the way, we ALL are what we COULD be, just go deeper. It's who we ARE already, we just are having trouble getting to it.
And again, when you love someone, you don’t need to like them, or accept them, or forgive them. All you are doing is giving them the light of love, and a connection to something that everyone deserves; humanity.
Healing Exercise – Loving Unconditionally
Read this aloud once, close your eyes and mentally agree to accept this into your Being, then read it aloud again.
“I love everyone unconditionally. I accept who they truly are, I open my heart to appreciate the wonderful individual they are meant to be, and I love them. I accept that they are the highest and best person they can be, and that they do exactly what they feel is right in any given moment. I let go of my need to expect them to live up to my standards and allow that they are doing the best they can. Regardless of how I feel about them, I give them love, I bless them with light, and when it is possible I offer them forgiveness for whatever they have done that is less than what I would prefer. (deep inhale & exhale)