Externally projecting that which is most dear to us is the most common behavior as beings mature into higher states of consciousness. It often manifests as excessive love for your family and children, mindless adoration of religious figures, or even a blind devotion to your favorite spiritual guru. Whichever healing path you chose towards your own self-love, please remember that all external projections are temporary and will cause us suffering once they disappear, like a mirage in the hot desert sun. Eventually, everything goes back to the beginning, and the path of your soul through countless lifetimes is no different.
Another interesting aspect of developing awareness is excessive self-love, which often manifests into a self-centric perception, attempting to impose our temporary points of view on the world around us. That too causes suffering as the world will eventually find a way to reflect back the essence of existence, mercilessly obliterating any traces of attachment to the illusion of imaginary self.
So what is self-love and how do we know that our practice is aligned with the universal laws of existence? This question is difficult to answer without going through the very experience that clearly demonstrates what self-love is not, causing us a great deal of suffering every time we try to project externally or willfully limit our perception.
The truth is that self-love needs no explanation, it is simply that which connects us with everything else, the ultimate release of all boundaries between yourself and the world around us. As children of the original ever-present universal love, we traverse countless lifetimes to learn about the truth of our origins and gain invaluable experience during our journeys, enriching the whole universe with our newly acquired wisdom as a reflection of our unique perception.
Perhaps self-love is simply an acknowledgment of this simple truth, a humble awareness of your small part within a vast ocean of self-developing consciousness. Forever fluid and constantly changing, nothing remains the same as one moment transforms into the next, and so on. Being present to your own primordial light within this vast movement of energies is the very essence of eternal existence, where the observer is inherently inseparable from that which is observed.
May all those who helped me on my path be blessed.