Self-Love Before Anything Else: A 3-Step Healing Process

Do you ever look in the mirror and struggle to say “I love myself?” You’re not alone. Many people experience a nagging sense of inadequacy, shame, or a general lack of self-esteem. In this scenario, achieving self-love can feel like a distant dream for many. This experience often stems from past experiences, traumas, or negative self-talk that build up over time. Let’s explore a powerful 3-step healing process based on Chakra principles to help you cultivate self-love, overcome these challenges, and embark on a journey of lasting positive change.

Understanding the Self-Love Deficit

The concept of self-love is often thrown around casually, but for many, achieving it feels like a distant dream. This lack of self-love can manifest in various ways, including:

• Low self-esteem: Feeling like you’re not good enough, constantly comparing yourself to others, and struggling with self-doubt.
• Shame: Feeling a deep sense of unworthiness or that something is fundamentally wrong with you.
• Difficulty expressing love for oneself: The simple act of saying “I love myself” feels awkward or inauthentic.

Traditional methods of addressing these issues, such as simply telling someone to “love themselves,” often prove ineffective. This is because the root cause lies deeper, often buried in past experiences or subconscious beliefs.

The Power of Energy: The Chakra System and Healing

The ancient Chakra system offers a unique framework for understanding these challenges. Chakras are energy centers in the body believed to be associated with different emotions and aspects of well-being. Here’s how the chakra system helps us understand self-love:

• Root Chakra (Muladhara): Located at the base of the spine, this chakra is associated with feelings of security, stability, and grounding. Negative emotions like guilt and shame often reside here when unresolved.
• Heart Chakra (Anahata): Located in the center of the chest, the Anahata chakra governs love, compassion, and self-acceptance. When the heart chakra is blocked, it can be difficult to experience or express these positive emotions.
• Crown Chakra (Sahasrara): Located at the top of the head, this chakra is associated with spirituality, connection to a higher power, and a sense of fulfillment. A healthy crown chakra allows us to integrate our experiences and find peace within ourselves.

The 3-step healing process we’ll explore aims to energize the heart chakra, releasing the negative emotions trapped in the root chakra. It then helps us anchor these positive feelings in the crown chakra, promoting a sense of acceptance, gratitude, and lasting fulfillment.

The 3-Step Healing Process: Reclaim Your Power

This self-healing process is a powerful tool for cultivating self-love and inner peace. Here’s a breakdown of the three key steps:

Step 1: Anchoring in Joy

The first step involves grounding yourself in a positive memory, even a small one, from your past. This creates a sense of safety and security from which to begin healing. Here’s how to do it:

1. Find a quiet space: Sit or lie down comfortably in a place where you won’t be disturbed.
2. Relax your body: Take a few deep breaths, focusing on letting go of any tension you hold.
3. Evoke a joyful memory: Close your eyes and bring to mind a time when you experienced joy, even if it was a small moment. It could be a childhood memory, a time you spent with loved ones, or a personal accomplishment.
4. Engage your senses: Immerse yourself fully in the memory. Relive the sights, sounds, smells, and emotions associated with this positive experience.
5. Create an anchor: Once you’re fully connected to the memory, touch your thumb and index finger together to create a simple hand gesture. This will serve as your “anchor” throughout the process.

Step 2: Releasing Negative Energy

The next step involves acknowledging and releasing any negative experiences that contribute to your current state of self-doubt or lack of self-love. Here’s how:

1. Maintain your relaxed state: Remain comfortably seated or lying down, maintaining the connection with your joyful memory through the hand gesture anchor.
2. Visualize negative experiences: Bring to mind a past experience that you believe has contributed to your current challenges. Focus on a single event for now.
3. Body sensations, not emotions: Instead of dwelling on the emotions associated with the experience, focus on the physical sensations you feel in your body. This could be tightness in your chest, a knot in your stomach, or any other physical manifestation.
4. Compassionate inquiry: With a sense of curiosity and kindness, ask the sensations a question: “What is bothering you? What can I do to help?” This may seem unusual, but it opens a dialogue with your subconscious mind to understand the root of the negative energy.
5. Allow emotions to surface (without judgment): As you focus on the sensations and ask the question, you may experience emotions arise. Observe these emotions without judgment, simply allowing them to come and go.
6. Shifting energy: Often, the intensity of the sensations will begin to lessen as you acknowledge them with compassion. This signifies the release of negative energy.

Step 3: Cultivating Gratitude and Self-Love

The final step focuses on integrating the positive emotions from your joyful memory with the release of negativity. Here’s how:

1. Deep breathing: Once the negative emotions subside, take a few slow, deep breaths, allowing your body to fully relax.
2. Reconnect with joy: Bring your awareness back to your joyful memory and reactivate the hand gesture anchor. Feel the positive emotions associated with that memory.
3. Gratitude meditation: Learn a simple gratitude meditation focusing on the crown chakra (top of the head). This could involve silently reciting things you’re grateful for or visualizing white light filling your head space.

Repeating the Process and Seeking Support

This 3-step process is most effective when repeated regularly over a period of time. Aim to practice it daily or every other day for at least two weeks. As you continue, you may find yourself able to address multiple negative experiences within a single session.

Seeking professional help: While this process can be powerful for self-healing, it’s important to acknowledge that some traumas may require professional support. If you find yourself struggling to process past experiences or the negative emotions are overwhelming, consider seeking guidance from a counselor or coach trained in trauma-informed therapy.

A Journey of Self-Discovery

Healing and cultivating self-love is a journey, not a destination. Be patient with yourself, celebrate your progress, and don’t be afraid to seek help when needed. Remember, the power to heal and experience self-love lies within you. This 3-step process based on tantric chakra principles offers a valuable tool to embark on this transformational journey.

Additional Resources:

• Explore more about the chakra system and its role in well-being.
• Learn about different self-love practices and meditations.
• Explore Coacharya’s Sensory Energy Awareness Coaching©. Coacharya also teaches this powerful self-healing modality.

By taking these steps and embracing a commitment to self-compassion, you can overcome the inner critic and cultivate the self-love you deserve. Ready to take your self-healing journey further? Contact Coacharya to explore Sensory Energy Awareness Coaching© and transform your life. Or, explore Coacharya’s coach training programs to learn these techniques and empower others.

Cover photo by Jade on Unsplash