Before you think I have completely lost every cookie in my jar, I have to tell you, that line is not really my line. I stole it from Kris Carr. Borrowed it, really. Trying it on to see how it feels.
I like it.
You try. Go on.
Right now—come on, give it to me. You know you want to.
Say it: “I am God.”
A couple weeks ago I had Kris Carr come as a guest speaker to Inner Circle. Inner Circle (the newest iteration of which is called the Creation Course) is a small closed group of Mastery Graduates. We meet every month at my loft, and go deeper inside the study of The Womanly Arts.
Kris is the writer, producer and star of the movie Crazy Sexy Cancer. She is also the bestselling author of Crazy Sexy Diet, and she has a new book coming out in the fall.
Kris and I are friends—we met at her birthday party last year, and see each other now and then. While I am a huge fan of her film, and I live by her food guidelines, I never really got to feel the full impact of her and her work until she came to Inner Circle.
Kris is the shit, the deal, and the enchilada.
She is a woman who was forced, by virtue of a life-threatening illness, to redefine herself, her priorities, her life and her lifestyle.
I have always thought of Kris as someone who was a huge proponent of green juice and a vegan diet. But that is not the half of it. Where her real zone of genius lives is in how she completely dug down, dug in, and shifted herself from a woman who was filled with self-doubt and self-loathing, to a woman who practices the art of self-love like a 7th dan black belt, as a tour de force, like a prima ballerina.
Self love—for a woman—is not an easy thing, especially in this patriarchal culture we live in.
Self-love is a practice.
Self-hatred is a practice, too. It is just that we don’t realize we are perpetually taking the actions of practicing it, because we were all conditioned to unconsciously practice self-hatred by a culture that does not yet know how to value the feminine.
Loving yourself is an art form that must be practiced daily, to gain any significant traction. It is about awakening yourself to a new, more useful awareness. Just like eating well – you have to choose differently, every day. You have to walk down different aisles in the supermarket, and read the labels on the boxes instead of just reaching for the same old same old.
One of the questions that Kris was asked at Inner Circle was about her spiritual practice.
She said that her spiritual practice was a bit unorthodox. That is when she tossed out my favorite line of the night, “I am God. You are God. We all are God.” With humility, humor and a rebel’s stance.
I loved this.
Why?
Well, in describing herself this way, she was utterly humble. Like a corn muffin. Or a rescue horse. Or last night’s sunset. Humble, perfect, and completely divine.
Just like me, just like you.
And self-love is the way to place the “God/Goddess” inside you.
One of the ways Kris practices this is by looking at herself in the mirror and simply saying, “I love you.” Over and over again.
Try it.
Does it sound kinda kooky? Too simple? Perhaps, at first glance. But I promise you that the practice will change your chemistry instantly.
Your doldrums, your boredom, your doubt will instantly lift, and you will fly free for a few seconds to a place where there is no past, no future, just a gloriously numinous present moment, where you are bathed in your own divinity.
Meet you there?
How do you practice self-love? What does “self-love” even mean, to you? Tell me in the comments below. And if you wanna help me spread the viral condition of self-love, please tweet, Facebook, or email this blog to one of your girlfriends…
With so much love and pleasure,
Mama Gena
P.S. Get your 7th dan black belt of self-love in Virtual Pleasure Boot Camp.
Free Pleasure Intensive
7 Most Common Ways Women Sabotage Their Own Desires (and the Cure)
{ 52 comments… read them below or add one }
I too told myself ‘I love you’, after an awful breakup and living alone, and boy was it uncomfortable at first. That was over 4 years ago, now I play ‘pretty naked girl’ much like before except now it involves nudity and gleeful self love.
nudity is always good…
I believe we are co-creators with God and we get to claim that…I AM the Earth Empress, of Sensual Beauty, an Olympian of Exquisite Self Care; this is the iconic archetype I’ve been called to embody.
Thank you Kris Carr for being a beautiful blaze of fierce inspiration, and to you Divine hawt Mama!
Xxo Shakaya
I love that “Olympian of exquisite self care” woohoo!!
Ellen
Self-love means taking care of yourself, appreciating your talents, having gratitude for all you have at the present moment. Patting yourself on the back after you’ve done good work, whether it’s cleaning your house, helping someone, or saying no to anything or anyone that will compromise your integrity is self-love.
Self-love is a journey of mastery. I am God, you are God, we are all God, so we can all acheive this mastery. Self-love is in good measure taking care of your body in ways that make you happy and healthy, and NOT about what anyone else thinks of your body or how you eat. For me, I had to learn a LOT about self love before I could start loving my body. I started saying “I AM HAPPY, I AM HEALTHY, I AM WHOLE” in the mirror several times a day, even when at first I didn’t believe it. I learned (often with the help of a Goddess friend or therapist) that because someone was displeased with me it didn’t have anything to do with me most of the time, it had to do with the other person’s issues. Learning to say “NO” to unacceptable behavior was a tough one, but oh so worth it. Self-love involves letting go of energy- draining people, jobs, activities, habits, thought patterns etc. Again, not easy, but OH SO WORTH IT! One day you wake up and almost everyone in your circle of friends are so smart, healthy, gorgeous, loving, supportive, and think you are terrific! When I noticed that there are no longer any energy-vampires around me and only people that I love and love me back, I knew I was on the road to the Art of the Mastery of Self-Love. It must be a daily practice, though, so we don’t for a moment forget about the Goddesses we truly are! Thank you Mama Gena for your inspiration, and thank you Kris Carr for the many ways you inspire and teach about Love and Health!!!
I love that you wake up one day and almost everyone in your circle of friends is smart, healthy, etc. What I become is what I attract. Beautiful! Thanks for that visual of what it looks like..
Namaste..
Self love means I have fallen in love with myself. I respect every cell in my body. I honor my life experiences for bringing me to this moment. My thoughts are loving and supportive. When I discover self-criticism, I transform it into compassion. Self love is being my best friend, saying “no” to others so I can say “yes” to myself. It a love affair I am having with myself and the world around me.
What a powerful article coming at the perfect time! I am so ready to re-train myself and start living by self-love!!!
oh yeah, sister!!
I describe myself as an atheist. I have a bumper sticker on my car that reads, “Born okay the first time.” So when I saw “I am God” from Mama Gena in my inbox, I thought, “Holy Shit! She’s actually saying out loud what I think! Que huevos grande!” What Kris says resonates for me on a soul level and has for some years now. I came from a fundamentalist Christian belief and practice way back in the 1980′s. The message I heard was very shaming (which at the time, fit for me because I carried a lot of self-contempt). It basically said to me that I was born defective, wrong, etc. That I needed to be fixed, improved upon in some way, “saved” from my wicked, sinful self. Through my journey I have come to believe that I am not born defective, I am born perfect. Perfectly imperfect, if you will. And if I do not need to be “saved” then I do not need God. Everything I sought God for, I gain through my own self love. No longer is my God concept something separate from me. My spiritual practice today is loving myself right where I am. All of me, the beautiful and the not-beautiful. What a transforming and freeing gift! Thank you, Gena, for having the clarity, truth, and courage to speak the words, “I am God”.
you are god, too sister!! you know what they say- there is always room at the top….
Here I am, pre-boot camp, and what I can say is that I only really know that self love is the opposite of self hate. Only really deep in my bones can recognize that hate part and know that the hate part is the part I’m ready to part with. Good bye to that. But hello to what? Something tells me that saying I love you in the mirror is only the tip of the iceberg. When will I look in the mirror and really see that goddess smiling back at me? Really and not with that voice in the background, you know the one…..Boot camp, hurry up and get here! So ready to learn!!
can’t wait to party with you in boot camp, nico!!
After 4 months of Mastery, having “you are a Goddess” repeatedly and lovingly shoved down my throat, wearing my graduation gown, gold and silver shoes and sparkling tiara, I sat down on the toilet in my hotel room and this thought went through my mind, “All women are beautiful, but I am the exception.” It actually made me smile. My resistance is so freaking adorable
I have a long way to go, but I know I’m on the right road.
deep throat is next, lisa…..
Deep Throat Goddess Acceptance! Mama, you are soo fun and funny, a real firestarter..Love you.
XOX
Jess
I am so with you Mamma Gena, I just finished reading The Mastery of Love by Don Miguel Ruiz and this is so what the books says, everyone should read this especially before they start another relationship as we need to have a wonderful relationship with our self to have one with another. Love your Daily Fluff and blog I look forward to reading it keep me on the path to self love.
There is only one way to get to G-d, and that is Jesus. We are not G-d and never will be.
This is New Age teaching and is very dangerous. I beg you to take some adjustments and turn this program around. Mama 101 was a wonderful class…..Mastery has so much occult practices it is scary.
I know God personally, and He wants me to tell you that He doesn’t need any defending. (not even from me, lol!)
Mastery is radical self-esteem building for the burned and damaged Bride. Jesus wants his Bride to be happy, healthy and loving herself!
(And no, the Bride is NOT the church. It is Mother Earth, the people and especially the women of the world).
What the church tells you is “occult practice” is really just advanced technology of heart mind and soul.
But it’s ok that you feel the way you do. I used to feel that way myself.
The Lord is preparing Heaven on Earth:
The Kingdom of God is at hand…and behold, like a Bride arrayed for her Bridegroom, comes Jerusalem descending from on high.
The Quickening, the Rapture – all of these terms are referring to the phases of the emergence of Heaven on Earth.
Thy Kingdom Come
And the Bride and the Bridegroom say, “Come.”
Selah!
(And so it is) Thanks for reading.
http://www.facebook.com/MothershipNovel
love this, sarah june and adrienne!!
Sarah June, you have a perfect right to your own belief systems and what you feel is right for you. But guess what – so does everyone else
Just as its important for others to accept your and your spiritual identity for what it is, you also must respect that others may not believe the same way you do, and it doesn’t make them wrong or bad or evil, just different from you. My favorite quote in the entire Bible is “Do not judge, lest ye be judged”, because it applies to everyone – no matter what we believe! 
Dig a little deeper dear. God is everything and everywhere. This is not new age or occult. Wasn’t it Jesus that said that the Father and I are One? And didn’t he also say that far far greater things we can do than he?
John 10:34
Delighted to read this!
I believe that God is love and that I/we are always connected to It. So yes, I am Goddess! And you are too!!!!
I have been doing what I call self-recognition practice daily for almost a year where I sit down with a pen and pad and start writing all the things I appreciate about myself. I am always surprised that there is always something(s) new to love about myself!
My self love is the first and most important step to loving others, for from that place it naturally overflows!.
Thanks fr the blog and the opportunity to share! xoxoxoxo Jane
Every morning, when I put my organic/totally natural perfume on – it’s in a roller ball applicator – I draw a heart with it right over my heart. Makes me smile every time and starts my day out right. And I’m a goddess.
The first time I was told to look in the mirror and say “I AM GOD” was at a spiritual conference at Asylomar, on the beautiful 17 mile drive part of the coast in California. There were 1000′s of us and the responses when we went to our rooms and started this practice were so varied. We laughed, we cried, we felt greatness as never before, some rebelled and would NOT do it. I feel like one of the fortunate ones as I looked into my eyes having been raised that all is one I saw clear to my soul and when I said “I am God” my soul smiled back at me and said YES. This has been a daily practice of mine since that day in 1975. I have shared this practice with people and have been met with reactions so weird and they think I am crazy and not in a good way. That is OK because I KNOW that “I AM GOD” and I am a Goddess as well.
Thank you Crazy Sexy Kris for bringing it to us today and thank you MAMA for sharing it with us all.
This is not the same as we are one bla bla. It is not the same as God and I are one. It is an all or nothing straight in the mirror, “I AM GOD” And so it is!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I am the perfect PRESENT! Most days standing in front of the mirror I appreciate the fabulous exterior wrapping and then I dive in to open the present and it is different each day. Today I unwrapped JOY, I realized how much joy I have been sharing, and how simple acts can elevate my environment……a simple smile, a HEY good morning….
Gorgeous Gwen – I cannnot tell you how much these words touch me. Thank you! I am God and the Gift of God! I am Goddess! Thank you!!!
I am a painter. I create magic and beauty every day and it doesn’t come from the little girl who was named fat and selfish (well, it does, but that’s a longer story…..). I have a Doctorate in Spirituality ( a technically useless degree in this world) which informs my painting and where I too discovered that I am a piece of God- God is me and I AM! It was during this process also that I realized that all of the caca in my life was there to teach me to turn it around, 180 degrees, and it actually was all good! Now I can say that I paint paintings that carry you away to that place within yourself!
Thank you for reminding me, Mama!!!
Love, Liz
I often love myself with a little shaking/ dancing before, in, and out of my shower, being sure I “shake every cell” it is great way to wake up , oxygenate the blood, create a nice flush on the face and as I do that I say beautiful loving things to myself such as I am healthy and hot! I am beautiful, loving, blissful and bountiful…. and yes !
God and I are One…. so
“I am God” sounds just right !
I love myself in good times and I also love myself when I am teary….. I then be sure to call myself darling….and always ask myself a good question… such as ” is that absolutely true” and ” Who would you be without that thought”
Self Love… is Loving myself as I am Now , and being free to choose the happier and kinder options at each moment
Love you Mama,
Blessings of love to you!
Oh, you beautiful sister goddesses, you just turned my day around! You, and the slice of warm pear crostini and hot coffee I’m inhaling.
Thank you so much for expressing the essence of life!
there is nothing as delicious and nourishing as this controversial gorgeous outpouring of sisterhood and the variety of brilliance that has erupted here!
I love you mama… i just do… i am you and you are me
perfect. XO.
Namaste and all that yummy stuff..
I have no desire to declare myself a god or even a goddess though I do believe it is important to embrace both the right and the responsibility to take control of my life and my experiences. The whole point of embracing the power of womanhood is to define my own path without feeling the need to conform to other people’s definition of that womanhood, even other women’s. Self-empowerment doesn’t necessarily mean a woman must declare herself anything in particular. In fact if she assigns a label to herself that doesn’t feel right to her simply because someone else says she should, she has in fact given over her power to that person. A woman should feel free to define who she is without allowing anyone else to define her. In my opinion, both words – god and goddess – are simply words to symbolize the action of empowering one’s self and embracing one’s power; therefore, I can choose whatever words make me feel most empowered. So can you.
yeah, baby!!!
Mama Gena, I loved what you wrote about Self-Love being a spiritual practice. And how it is so challenging for women to do – it is revolutionary, that’s why.
and YOU are a pleasure revolutionary!
Love this reminder, it makes perfect sense, “I Am God/Goddess”, of course!!! What an act of self~love this is to acknowledge that God/dess is not only everything outside of me but actually is ME!!!! The other great thing I see about saying this periodically throughout the day is it keeps you PRESENT (“I AM”, not I was, not I will be, “I AM”) ~ so good, so good, GENIUS, actually. Thanks for the love, Mama, thanks for the love . . . xo
Mama, my dearest darling, my favorite progenitress of “learning to love yourself” – yes, you are so absolutely right on!
And yes, “I am God” is very emotionally charged for many of us, and downright scary.
Dear Sister Sarah Jane – thank you for expressing yourself so completely.
All: Please read Psalm 82:6 “I said, ‘You are “gods”: you are all sons (daughters) of the Most High.’”
Jesus himself agreed with this. John 10:34, “”Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I said, you are gods’?”
In Genesis, it says that God created (hu)man; “Male and female he created them” and “in his image and likeness”. How can we be in the “image and likeness” of God without sharing in the essence of Who and What He is?
With this, “I am God” is a natural and logical conclusion.
Much of our spiritual growth these days – as we draw closer to realizing the God-nature inside all of us – lies in “getting it.” We are all “God.”
The scary thing is now to actually BE God – to be perfect in the reflection of God’s love, towards each other, and towards ourselves.
And how can we BE God, Who is perfect love, and Who has perfect love for each of us, without loving ourselves?
Much love to all of you – keep it going!
ok, this is easier to read here:
Sarah June, you have a perfect right to your own belief systems and what you feel is right for you. But guess what – so does everyone else
Just as its important for others to accept your and your spiritual identity for what it is, you also must respect that others may not believe the same way you do, and it doesn’t make them wrong or bad or evil, just different from you. My favorite quote in the entire Bible is “Do not judge, lest ye be judged”, because it applies to everyone – no matter what we believe!
ophi- how did you make your words- above- go all skinny like that?
After reading your blog, I realized that approving of other people isn’t enough to draw them in. I have simultaneously approve of them AND love myself. After this realization, I landed a client I’ve been trying to pin down for a month! I am so genious!
Fabulous for you, dear SG Fine Katie, and keep going with this! Insightful and wonderful! And I’m so happy for you w/r/t new client!
Oh, la!
My self-lovin’ has blasted to new heights since I began my Bikram Yoga practice just over two years ago.
Check out the Bikram Yoga website…
For those hearing of this Yoga for the first time, it is a 106-degree hot room in which every Yoga asana is practiced in front of a mirror.
Yes, a mirror, ballet-studio style.
Try it!
Love to you all!
Regina,
Queen Of The Desert
An art form that must be practiced daily! A gorgeous reminder to take time to see, feel and love our divinity. My practice today: writing this comment on my Ipad…in a camomile bath…with a lavender candle lit…and adorned only with my “I am Divine Tattoo” …and my sparkling Sister Goddess tiara. Love you, Mama!
Yes, I AM GOD- I’m the daughter of Love N Light- and I live by that sacred truth
Thank you for sharing with us, dear sisters N helps us to keep shining!
Much Love n Gratitude-
YES! Thank you SG’s!
Now you’re talking!
Gorgeous blog Mama….pleasure as making love with our spiritual wholeness.
Blessed Be.
Wow.
It is so awesome to come back here when I feel stuck and see that Sister Goddesses keep adding on to the conversation. And isn’t it exactly perfect timing that having had an incredible day of self-allowance/self-realization/self-love yesterday (I knew myself as equally to all the alleged highest beings on the planet and I allowed myself to interact with them on that level energetically) and had a great night of clubbing, I would wake up this morning and quickly discover a sense of self-hatred deep in my core. SCing barely touched the negative charge. So off to the boards I came to see what MG might have said on self-loathing. Thank you so much for having that little search feature. I have re-read all of the above and am SO grateful for everyone’s comments. Many of them are now copied into my Mama Gena Notebook #1(Notebook #2 is the one I plan to start for Mastery!).
I feel so much better. I momentarily forgot that Self-Love is a Revolutionary act!
Thank you, Tank You. Thank You Regina Thomashauer and all my fantastic Sister Goddesses!
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