How can I love someone I don’t know?

I was at a program for emotionally exhausted women at Kripalu in Stockbridge, MA when I asked the instructor this question.

We had been talking about developing self love as an antidote to traditional self care practices; the latter often focuses more on doing rather than being. Eucalyptus bath bombs and lavender scented candles just don’t cut it when your nervous system is shot to hell, and you’re one bad day away from claiming you’ve been struck by a dissociative fugue, getting in the car, and just driving away from it all. Cultivating self love instead of buying into self care was the answer, I was being told. So I asked my question.