From: ibshambat@gmail.com   
      
   My former wife Melanie told me once that she wanted me to love myself in the   
   same way as I loved her. At first I thought this the wrong course of action.   
   Loving yourself came across to me as being masturbatory. In fact there appears   
   to be a solid logic    
   behind this.   
      
   When you like someone, you want other people to like them as well. That is   
   especially the case with themselves. And in loving himself, he is honoring   
   your love.   
      
   I had a girlfriend who kept denigrating herself. I hated it. The reason I   
   hated it was that I liked her, and her attacks on herself were experienced by   
   me as an attack on someone I liked. If you love someone, you don’t want   
   anyone to be attacking them.    
   And that also means themselves.   
      
   Now there are people who claim that loving yourself is a prerequisite for   
   loving another. Instead it often works the other way around. You love the   
   other person for traits that you find lovable. Seeing these traits expressed   
   successfully by another    
   person, you know what you need to work in within yourself in order to be   
   lovable in your own eyes. I have learned massive things from women I’ve   
   loved, and I like myself a lot better than I did when I started.   
      
   Loving yourself is thus honoring the love of the other person. When you love   
   someone you want everyone to be good to them, including themselves. That being   
   done, good relationships can blossom.   
      
   Love yourself as part of loving another and in so doing honor their love.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)