This is self-work and I'm Dr Margaret Rutherford.

At self-work we'll discuss psychological and emotional issues common in today's world

and what to do about them.

I'm Dr Margaret and self-work is a podcast dedicated to you taking just a few minutes today for your own self work.

Hi there and welcome or welcome back to self-work.

I especially want to greet all the new listeners and there are a lot of you.

Something has happened the last week or so and I've picked up listeners from all over the world, certainly in the United States.

By the way, California, you're leading the way at this point.

Not even my home state of Arkansas.

But thank you. I'm so glad you're here.

I'm a clinical psychologist.

I've been in private practice for 25 years

in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

And today we're going to talk about unconditional love. Of course, it exists, but my point in this

podcast is that it can be used up. What is unconditional love? Well, it's being a love without conditions, without necessarily

very specific expectations. Meaning, if I love you, I don't need you to be who I need you to be in order for you to continue receiving that love.

But let's talk about expectations just for a second.

We have expectations of the grocery store clerk.

She or he will be accurate, they won't be too slow or too quick,

they won't break our eggs.

So how can we not have expectations or conditions on those we love? Now when a healthy parent sees a

child for the first time, that kind of unconditional love flows out of you. I remember well

...