Hi Peter,
Yes, but not till late in life. It’s never too late to change.
For me, Unconditional Self Love (or Acceptance) is the first of two steps in achieving a significant degree of peace and contentment.
The second, and equally important step, is Unconditional Love (or Acceptance) of Others. Once you have these two areas covered off, you’re home and hosed.
For me, it means firstly accepting who I am…a perfectly fallible human being…just like the rest of you lot.It means I know that I do some things well and that I suck at a lot of other things…just like you lot. The second part means that I accept that you lot are perfectly fallible human beings, just like me.
Once you accept these two realities, it takes a lot of pressure off expectations…thereby releasing you from blaming, regretting, resenting and anger.
The catch is, however, that because we are normal fallible human beings, it’s very difficult to achieve the full state of USA or UOA…as we have been ingrained with a very strong expectation gene. Having said that, every little bit helps.