You may be wondering just what is spiritual medicine. Quite simply, spiritual medicine is love. It is the greatest healing agent that we have. Without love, people die, maybe not literally, but some part within us dies and gives up hope. Love gives us hope and nourishes our soul as well as our body and mind.

So many people spend so much time helping others and giving their love and energy out to everyone but themselves. In turn they end up feeling quite drained, unmotivated and depressed. It is as if their tank is out of gasoline and they have not filled it up again. Cars can not run without gasoline to fuel them, neither can human beings.

How can you begin right now to fill yourself up with love? When I talk about loving ourselves, I am speaking of self- acceptance and treating ourselves as if we were our own best friend. You may want to take a moment to ask yourself the following questions:

• How do you treat your best friends and loved ones?
• Do you treat yourself the same way?
• If the answer is no, what can you do to start treating yourself better?
• In what ways can you begin to forgive, love and accept yourself more?

The first step is to be more aware of what you say to yourself. I am speaking of the negative thoughts and judgements that we unconsciously have and project upon ourselves every day. These thoughts can be quite damaging to our self-confidence as well as to our health and well-being. One of the best ways I have found for stopping these thoughts and self-judgment is to forgive ourselves for past actions and to release from your mind and body any beliefs and emotional pain you are still carrying from the past and from other people.

Here is a technique that will help you do this:

• Get comfortable in a chair or lying down and close your eyes.
• Imagine in your mind that you are in a beautiful place in nature, somewhere you love to go or make it up.
• Let your senses come alive. Smell the fresh air, feel the sun on your body, hear the sounds of nature all around you and feel your feet connected to the earth.
• Imagine that in front of you is a beautiful contained fire. This is a fire of transformation and purification.
• Take a deep breath and begin now to place in the fire all the negative thoughts, beliefs and emotional pain that you may be carrying inside of you from the past. Put in the fire any fears, doubts, judgements against yourself and others you are ready to let go of. As you do this imagine that it is releasing from the whole of you; your mind, body, emotions and spirit. Let go of the burdens that you have been carrying. Start to feel lighter inside of yourself now.
• As you do this, you may want to say a prayer or declaration like, “I am now letting these fears and burdens be released and set free. They no longer support my life and I am now free to love my self, to forgive my self and to live a happier and healthier life.” Add in whatever words empower you. This is a good visualization to do whenever you feel weighed down with negative thoughts or having a hard time feeling good about yourself.
• At the end of this visualization, take the time to breathe back in and claim back all the parts of yourself that you may feel separated from. I am referring to your energy, personal power, joy, your ability to love yourself, your confidence, trusting in yourself etc.
• Spend a few minutes filling yourself up with love and inner peace before getting up. To help you do this, place one hand on your heart and the other on your belly and take in several deep breaths. This is an energy balance that will help you to feel calmer and more centered inside.

Affirm to yourself on a daily basis that you are a special and worthwhile person. It is so important to your health and well-being to continue to love, accept and be kind to yourself. Remember to always be your own best friend. Spend the time to fill up your cup, so that you can more easily share this love with others and in turn make this world a better place for all of us to live in.

Editor’s Note: This material is excerpted from the book “Spiritual Medicine” by Laurie Leah Levine (North Atlantic Books, Frog Ltd., Berkeley, CA) © Laurie Leah Levine, 2000