Learning to love myself; confused

[BookofJames]

Hey guys!

I ran into this really cool guy on youtube named Burt Harding. I suggest you check him out. He’s kinda a wise man/guru whose teachings are very Christian and VERY helpful.

He says his video “how to love YOU!”, you don’t have to change anything about yourself, you just need to learn to love yourself to be happy.

In the video, he suggests putting your hands on a part of your body that is causing you stress (heart, stomach), then tell yourself, “I love you”… “I forgive me seeking for what I already am”… “I love you”… and “Thank you” (presumably to God) and repeat however many times needed.

However, I ran into a prediciment. Although this excercise has helped me a ton and I have attained a wonderful level sustainable peace, it all came crashing down today when I realized I needed to work out. how does this relate to changing habits amd doing more good works? Isn’t that “changing” a part of you? I’m either misunderstanding him or something’s incompatable with Christianity. I don’t know a lot about the New Age movement, but I’m kinda afraid there’s some of that in his teachings:doh2:

Thanks for reading! These forums have been so helpful to me!!! Thanks so much guys!!!

-Pat

Here’s the video:
youtube.com/watch?v=MKP-Pn0Ix-c

 

[Brigid34]

Hey guys!

I ran into this really cool guy on youtube named Burt Harding. I suggest you check him out. He’s kinda a wise man/guru whose teachings are very Christian and VERY helpful.

He says his video “how to love YOU!”, you don’t have to change anything about yourself, you just need to learn to love yourself to be happy.

In the video, he suggests putting your hands on a part of your body that is causing you stress (heart, stomach), then tell yourself, “I love you”… “I forgive me seeking for what I already am”… “I love you”… and “Thank you” (presumably to God) and repeat however many times needed.

However, I ran into a prediciment. Although this excercise has helped me a ton and I have attained a wonderful level sustainable peace, it all came crashing down today when I realized I needed to work out. how does this relate to changing habits amd doing more good works? Isn’t that “changing” a part of you? I’m either misunderstanding him or something’s incompatable with Christianity. I don’t know a lot about the New Age movement, but I’m kinda afraid there’s some of that in his teachings:doh2:

Thanks for reading! These forums have been so helpful to me!!! Thanks so much guys!!!

-Pat

Here’s the video:
youtube.com/watch?v=MKP-Pn0Ix-c

It sounds New Agey to me. Loving yourself is easily taken too far and worrying about humility would be more important. Humility and fear of the Lord, with obedience is more what we need to focus on, I think.

 

[BookofJames]

Yeah, I should probably stay away from him.

Thanks!

 

[AlanFromWichita]

I just watched it all the way through. I didn’t see anything particularly disturbing. The closest I could see to an “eastern” way of thinking (not saying it’s bad btw just eastern) is the idea that you are the ocean, not just a wave. The concept reminds me of Rumi’s Garden Beyond Paradise.

I think what he says could be useful. When he talks of the need for love, and that control is part of it, that is in part some of the things I learned about centering prayer and how the “false self” aka ego, is fueled. The three energy centers of the false self are affection/esteem, power/control, and security/comfort. The speaker really didn’t address the “security/comfort” aspect of it, so I think he could have done much more. He did mention the “control” aspect.

As far as changing yourself, I take what he’s saying to mean that you don’t NEED to be any different than you are, to love yourself. There is nothing wrong with doing something healthy to protect and keep in shape your body which is God’s gift to you. But if your loving yourself depends on it, then I think this is where the guy is right. If you think, “I’ll hate myself until I lose at least 10 pounds,” then you have put conditions on your love and this guy wants us to love ourselves unconditionally. In fact, loving yourself makes you more likely IMO to be able to accomplish the goals you want. At least it works that way for me; I’m not much for negative motivation.

Alan

 

[BookofJames]

I just watched it all the way through. I didn’t see anything particularly disturbing. The closest I could see to an “eastern” way of thinking (not saying it’s bad btw just eastern) is the idea that you are the ocean, not just a wave. The concept reminds me of Rumi’s Garden Beyond Paradise.

I think what he says could be useful. When he talks of the need for love, and that control is part of it, that is in part some of the things I learned about centering prayer and how the “false self” aka ego, is fueled. The three energy centers of the false self are affection/esteem, power/control, and security/comfort. The speaker really didn’t address the “security/comfort” aspect of it, so I think he could have done much more. He did mention the “control” aspect.

As far as changing yourself, I take what he’s saying to mean that you don’t NEED to be any different than you are, to love yourself. There is nothing wrong with doing something healthy to protect and keep in shape your body which is God’s gift to you. But if your loving yourself depends on it, then I think this is where the guy is right. If you think, “I’ll hate myself until I lose at least 10 pounds,” then you have put conditions on your love and this guy wants us to love ourselves unconditionally. In fact, loving yourself makes you more likely IMO to be able to accomplish the goals you want. At least it works that way for me; I’m not much for negative motivation.

Alan

Thanks for watching it! I appreciate the response. So you think the “I love you” excercise isn’t New Agey or too non Christian?

It’s nice to hear from a fellow Witchitan! Final Four baby!!!

 

[AlanFromWichita]

Thanks for watching it! I appreciate the response. So you think the “I love you” excercise isn’t New Agey or too non Christian?

It’s nice to hear from a fellow Witchitan! Final Four baby!!!

I think it’s close. He talked of pain as being energy from the body, which it is. But he did stop short of telling you that the pain must be here, or there. New agey people tend to speak of “chakras” which are like 7 energy centers and they are all identified as being related to some function or other. If he had said that, I would have thrown a yellow flag.

I do not believe the “chakras” specifically apply to any given person, although it may help some people communicate some ideas. I think that thoughts are distributed around the body, because I feel them twitch me at different places. Also the central nervous system is like an Internet, where the senses and the thoughts are all electrically connected, and not so much just like the brain in the head is the controller and it just sends out signals – it relies on signals coming back, too. And I think the guy putting his hand and saying, “I love you,” is not dangerous, although I think one could easily move into more sophisticated techniques.

Overall I like his message that you do not need to change in order to love yourself. And like I mentioned earlier, that doesn’t mean you don’t love yourself if you do want to change something; it just means that you love yourself unconditionally before and after you either change or try to change.

Once I heard a saying, “God does not love us if we change; God loves us so that we can change.”

Alan

 

[Robert_Sock]

I often hear it said that God loves me just the way I am. But I think God has expectations of us to improve our religious state in life through repentance and penance.

 

[BookofJames]

I often hear it said that God loves me just the way I am. But I think God has expectations of us to improve our religious state in life through repentance and penance.

No argument here. That’s why this excercise concerns me. btw, Alan, what would be more a sophistichistated means of learning to love oneself? Any links? books?

I’m a very fragile 20 year old who’s just trying to become an orginized adult. I get on a roll with responsibility, but when something “harsh’s my mellow” I get really bummed and it takes a while to recover.

I did the “I love you” thing for an hour last night while listening to Gregorian chants, and when I woke up this morning, I felt awesome! however, something ended up not going my way today and I fell into a pit of depair. How do I let things slide by? Catholic spirituality can really confuse me sometimes, but what I do know is that I need some sustainable peace so I can get through my day.

Any advice? I hope that makes sense…

Thanks again for reading!!