Self Love: Resources and an Update

At the end of January I went through the bookshelves in my house looking for some good reading material on the topic of self love. I came up with some strange sources, but somehow they all fit together and I'm learning a lot. Here's what I found:

• The Art of Loving by Erich Fromm: This man is a genius. I've been reading and re-reading the section on self love and selfishness.
• Phenomenal Woman by Maya Angelou: This woman is powerful. She is my role model and hero.
• Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Lives of Adolescent Girls by Mary Pipher: This book is amazing and I can't wait to read the whole thing! I've skipped around a bit but what I've read so far has corresponded with what I'm reading in Alice Miller.
• How Good Do We Have to Be? by Harold S. Kushner: I chose this book because I struggle with guilt. The book also focuses on allowing others to be less than perfect, which is something I need to hear. I've been expressing my self hate through criticism of others and this book is helping me to address that.
• The Drama of the Gifted Child: The Search for the True Self by Alice Miller: I hesitate to admit that I'm reading this because it's a book that focuses on the damage caused to children's psyche and self esteem by their parents. I'm not reading it so that I can blame my problems on my parents. I'm reading it so that I can recognize one of the sources of my self hatred and learn how to fix it.
• Solitude: A Return to the Self by Anthony Storr: For months I've been trying to learn to be okay with being alone.

There are also a few websites doing the Self Love thing this month:

• Gala Darling: http://www.galadarling.com/
• Positively Present: http://www.positivelypresent.com/2011/02/learn-to-love-yourself-unconditionally.html
• Vivienne McMaster: http://viviennemcmaster.squarespace.com/blog/2011/1/29/14-days-of-self-love.html

So far I've learned that I have denied the existence of many aspects of myself because I was taught that they are not okay. As a result, I don't know myself. I probably find it hard to love myself because I have never fully let myself be. Like most human beings, I regularly put on a front and hope that it's pleasing enough for everyone around me. That front is extremely uncomfortable! I'm working on exploring the parts of myself that I've missed. I bet there's a bunch of cool stuff in this head of mine waiting to be discovered.

"To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best day and night to make you like everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight and never stop fighting." -e.e. cummings

Room to Read

I stumbled across an organization this week called Room to Read. Their main goals are to develop libraries in poor countries where none exist, to increase literacy rates and provide education as a means for improving the lives of people in poverty, and to provide scholarships specifically for girls. Their mission reads:

We partner with local communities throughout the developing world to provide quality educational opportunities by establishing libraries, creating local language children's literature, constructing schools, and providing education to girls. We seek to intervene early in the lives of children in the belief that education empowers people to improve socioeconomic conditions for their families, communities, countries and future generations. Through the opportunities that only education can provide, we strive to break the cycle of poverty, one child at a time.

Wow!! Using reading to break the cycle of poverty? I WANT IN. I would LOVE to get a job with this organization, but their current openings are scarce so I'm checking out the volunteer opportunities and maybe I can work that into something bigger! Helping to build a library and teaching people to read and traveling to foreign countries (SOUTH AFRICA) sounds like a dream job.