We would like to offer you an analogy today to help you understand why not allowing yourself in your own self love is detrimental to you.
Imagine if you will, a buffet. You are the owner of the buffet so you have full access to all of its offerings. Day after day you fill up the trays with delicious food for others to enjoy but you refuse to take any of the food for yourself. There is plenty there. Taking some of the food would in no way leave others wanting because you have an endless supply available to you to replenish the trays if they run low. But you hold yourself back from eating the food because perhaps you think it is noble, or that your job is only to serve others. Maybe you think taking food for yourself would take away from your profits, or perhaps you think you haven’t worked long enough to deserve the food. Maybe you put off eating until later but somehow later never comes.
Slowly but surely you start to get more exhausted. You are hungry and out of balance so you start to snap at your customers. Because you are malnourished your health starts to decline. Because you aren’t eating the food you aren’t able to see if it is up to the standards you want for others. People start to complain so you work even harder which makes you even more tired and perpetuates the cycle. You are working so hard but no one seems to appreciate the sacrifices you are making because they can’t imagine that you aren’t also eating from the buffet. In fact, if they knew they might distrust ever eating the food you offer, wondering what was wrong with it.
Do you see? We use this food analogy because love is your spiritual sustenance. It is vital for your wellness, your satisfaction, and success. You must allow yourself time to fill up your own plate with your self love in order to be all you can be and to have the fuel to love to your greatest capacity, as well. Isn’t it time to include yourself in all the deliciousness your love has to offer? As you thrive on it, others will want it, too, and will respond in kind with much love and appreciation. ~Archangel Gabriel through Shelley Young