The first and most important relationship you'll ever have throughout life is with yourself. How you feel about and care for your own mind, body and spirit sets the stage for all relationships outside yourself—with your partner, family, friends and co-workers. From psychological, spiritual and practical perspectives, it's pretty clear that if you don't love yourself, it's in turn harder to give and receive love.
We asked the experts to clue us into the signs, attitudes, beliefs and behaviors that reveal someone loves himself or herself enough to sustain a relationship. The point is not that you need to fulfill all the points on this list (no one is that perfect!), but that you can use this list to inspire you and the ones you love to increase love from the place where it starts—within.
Here are 25 signs you're ready to share and accept love:
1. You attract a like-minded partner.When you're in the energy of self love and acceptance, it's easy to magnetically attract a like-minded partner who not only loves himself/herself but is available, interested, and ready for healthy, happy, whole love.
2. You complete yourself. You know you are ready for a relationship when you don't need a relationship to feel happy and worthy, when you want a relationship to share your love rather than to get love, when loving yourself and sharing your love is more important to you than having control over getting love. When you want a relationship to deepen your growth rather than to fill your emptiness, you are ready.
3. You won’t settle for conditional love. Men and women are ready for love when they realize they deserve to receive unconditional love from a partner.
4. There's nothing "wrong" with you. The only person who can complete you is you. The way to do that is to realize that there is nothing wrong with you; you are not broken, you don't need to be fixed. The truth of love is found in self-acceptance, and in shining the light of love on those dark places inside of us.
5. You don't seek constant distraction. You're not afraid to be alone—and in silence, even. You like spending time alone and don't need the television to be on or the phone to be glued to your head. You can be with just yourself.
6. You're not waiting for someone else to "save" you. One is ready to manifest healthy, lasting love when they truly abandon the wish that another can "save" or "heal" them. Self acceptance and self love are markers that one is fully ready for intimacy. This state of being allows one to be open to both giving and receiving love in a pure, authentic way—unburdened by notions of healing wounds from the past.
7. You honor your bigger "Self." When you understand who you are—as a human, in relation to God or your spirituality—and when you are able to consider the "other" without compromising or obsessing about "me," you are setting yourself up to live a healthy, beautiful relationship.
8. You've called off the search. The old adage is true: the person who is most ready for love is she who has stopped actively pursuing it. Instead, she has been concentrating on developing her own skills, passions, and happiness. A confident, grounded and interesting person is extremely appealing.
9. You're self-confident. Self-confidence is the key to knowing that you're ready for love (it's also the most powerful aphrodisiac). When you take pride in yourself and you are clear about your own worth—that is when you'll be able to attract someone who honors you and himself in a healthy relationship.
10. You build memories, not walls. I know someone is ready for love when they incorporate their match into their life after a few dates, rather than compartmentalizing dating activities. Building memories, not walls, shows long-term potential.
11. You know your turn-ons. When you know what turns you on, what brings you pleasure and you aren't afraid to go after it, it's a good sign you're ready to share love with someone else. The key to this is honoring that you are deserving of pleasure whether you are with someone or not and recognizing that all types of sensual pleasure—the foods you eat, the smells around you, a cool shower on a hot day—keep you vibrant and alive.
12. You're comfortable in your own skin. Embracing yourself inside and out is a sign you’re reading to fully embrace another.
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