Want to feel cherished and respected?

Cherishing and Self-Respect

I’ve landed on two words or values this week to explore, both aspects of self-love worth examining.

Who doesn’t want to feel cherished and respected?

Yet, do you cherish and respect yourself?

Let’s examine definitions:

cher·ish

verb \ˈcher-ish, ˈche-rish\

1
a : to hold dear : feel or show affection for b : to keep or cultivate with care and affection : nurture
2
: to entertain or harbor in the mind deeply and resolutely

Origin of CHERISH

Middle English cherisshen, from Anglo-French cheriss-, stem of cherir to cherish, from cher dear, from Latin carus — more at charity


To care for, to hold dear, to cherish, and to nurture, all meaning similar things. Truly love in action, all beautiful ideas, no? Practice makes perfect.


Definition of RESPECT

1
: a relation or reference to a particular thing or situation
2
: an act of giving particular attention : consideration
3
a : high or special regard : esteemb : the quality or state of being esteemedc plural : expressions of high or special regard or deference
4
: particular, detail
— in respect of
chiefly British : with respect to : concerning

Origin of RESPECT

Middle English, from Latin respectus, literally, act of looking back, from respicere to look back, regard, from re- +specere to look — more at spy
First Known Use: 14th century


So for self- respect, having consideration for yourself, holding yourself in esteem or regard, to be concerned with yourself, to regard (meaning to look at, or consider).

Synonyms of Self-Respect: Self-Consideration, Self-Esteem, Self-Concern. Note: Nowhere here does it say selfishness. We know many Masters who esteem selfishness as a highly positive trait. Clearly if we have self-respect and are self-concerned, we don’t have time to project or worry too much about others, we spend much of our time taking care of ourselves. It’s a very wise position to hold in my experience. It reminds me of Byrons Katie’s “Work”, reminding us to mind our own business. If you have self-respect, you mind your own business.

If you cherish yourself, you respect yourself and vice versa. You look after yourself, you hold yourself dear. Sometimes, the words self-love are overused to the point where we lose the meaning of them. I am finding that exploring the words cherish and self-respect to be a way of exploring aspects of self-love which are meaningful, clear, detailed, which provides ample examples of what it means.

I think we all understand what it feels like to be cherished, and it’s something that all humans want. However, many Masters would say that they don’t want to be held in higher esteem than others. This is not what I mean. I come from a self-cherishing point of view. We are mostly discussing self-love, to cherish the self and to respect the self. These are all necessary to cultivate one’s power (to love) and one’s happiness and health. We sometimes find it easy to cherish pets, children, and those we are in love with. It’s much harder to cherish ourselves or to cherish those we have known for a while or perhaps have begun to take for granted. The truth is that if we continue to cherish and respect ourselves, it’s impossible to not do that for others.

We have all been hearing how important it is to cultivate feeling good. One way to feel good is to cherish and respect ourselves. This feeling vibrates as love, gratitude and appreciation.

If we all walked around cherishing and respecting ourselves, we would hold a state of high honor towards ourselves and our divinity, therefore directing that energy outwardly, creating love and peace on the planet.

So what does cherishing and respecting yourself look like to you? If you cherished yourself the way you want to be cherished by others, how would you treat yourself? If you respect yourself the way you wish to be respected, what would this look like?

Then we can cherish and respect all of life. Then we can create beauty on Earth. Then peace will flourish. Then we’ll walk the Earth with honor and reverence. We will relax and smile more. We will be present to each other. Then we will cherish and respect the next 7 generations and fulfill our obligation to leave behind an even greater legacy before we return to our full Spirit form. Then we not only talk about self-love and love, we actually create it with our actions.

May we all practice a deep commitment to honoring, cherishing and respecting ourselves in our actions, so we can project the same. May we expand our self-nurturing ways, so we can nurture all of life. May we all feel worthy and deserving of feeling cherished and respected. May we choose the choice of cherishing and respecting the Self. May we all learn to enjoy feeling good, while we continue to cultivate sustained positive feelings towards ourselves first.

Metta Meditation practices cultivate this loving-kindness: May I be happy, May I be healthy, May I live at ease, May I be safe.

And so it is.

Love and blessings in this new moon, new year, and new cycle of growth.