Is Taking Care of Yourself Selfish?

Taking care of ourselves is not selfish! It is critical. Yes, of course, we can get way too self-absorbed, and that is unhealthy and detrimental. Taking care of the self does not mean that we get lost in our own story, drama, psyche, desires or fears. But, being spiritually healthy also does not mean that we deny the very real needs of our own bodies, minds, hearts and spirits. We can only share with the world that which we have. Only when we are personally anchored, grounded in light and love and peace can we be of any kind of real benefit to others. If there is no energy of joy or peace, or light within ourselves, how are we going to share that with the world? When a lot of us get on a spiritual path, we think that service of all means minus the self. But it does not. It means including the self! However, it’s critical to realize we are talking not about nourishing the lowercase s self, full of fears, illusions and ego trips. We are talking about nourishing our capital S Self: the highest, clearest, truest self, the core of we are, which is light and love and joy.