Finding empathy for oneself

To find empathy for oneself is a noble goal that takes great courage and dedication. I am convinced that we cannot heal our emotional wounds without learning to have empathy for ourselves.
The foundation for this premise is tied to Accepting (not denying or avoiding) our emotions. By learning to accept that how we think and feel is valid and appropriate, we learn to love ourselves unconditionally.
My old professor at the University of Arizona, Dr Gary Schwartz, created an acronym for LOVE: Listen -Observe -Value -Empower. From my memory, he presented the acronym as a guideline to truly love another, and within it was the insinuation this could be used to love oneself. Upon my own reflection and work recently, I have added to Gary’s inspiring Acronym to more fully and clearly love oneself and others.
To truly empathize with ourselves, or any other being, we must Listen to them; Observe the context in which their perspective was created; make sure they feel that their perspective is of Value/ acknowledge and Validate their perspective; Empathize with the emotions that were created from their thoughts and perspective/ and finally Empower them by Challenging and Replacing their misinterpretation of their experience.
The key to the process of Empathy appears to lie in making sure that the person (and ourselves) feels Heard and Understood. When we are trying to reason with an arguing person, there is no point in taking the time to explain how there was a miscommunication until the arguing person feels Heard and Understood by us. Once they feel as though we understand their perspective (and maybe add an "I'm sorry"), then they will calm down enough to listen to us explain how this was a simple misunderstanding.
The same process exists within our own minds. We all have ongoing dialogues in our head, and at times engage in arguments with ourselves. We get stuck with old wounds because we never felt Validated or Heard by ourselves. Until this voice/ perspective feels heard, we will never fully Accept and Heal this wound.
Emotional wounds are the arguing, crying, tantruming voices in our head that still do not feel Heard and Understood by us. A big part of why we never felt Heard was due to the conflicting emotions that were created. One of the most obvious examples of conflicting emotions can be identified in being cheated on by someone we love. Anger, of course comes up as a valid reason to invalidate/ argue away our sadness, grief, loss and shock of finding out the person we love was unfaithful. “We are better off without them,” is the nicest, most rational voice that finds its way into the discussion to invalidate our anger, sadness and loss brought on by this event.
To fully Accept and Heal from any emotional wound, we must L.O.V.E. each and every thought and emotion that comes up.