Self Love – In Order To Love Others…

Self love is often mistaken for being selfish and narcissistic when in fact it is being selfless and accepting. Self-love starts by giving love, attention and care to yourself, but if that is where we stop, then it stops being self-love…

Self love  forms the foundation of your single, most important relationship – that with yourself. The strength of all your other relationships is exactly equal to the strength of that foundation. To love yourself is not just a self-esteem boosting piece of advice. It is the prerequisite to truly loving others.  For it is even written “Love your neighbour as you love yourself”, so tell me,  how do you love your neighbour when you don’t love yourself?

This is very important because we cannot give to someone else what we don’t have and likewise we cannot get from someone else what he or she doesn’t have. Yes, It starts with ‘me’ but it isn’t all bout ‘me’. It is getting to know me well enough so a stronger ‘we’ is built and that is why a lot of relationships fail cos there are too many broken people who are probably in self denial, entering relationships and realising they cannot function cos they haven’t well, fixed themselves first or come into the realisation of the importance of loving themselves right first.

[ctt title=”‘You can search throughout the entire universe for someone who is more deserving of your love and affection than you are yourself, and that person is not to be found anywhere. You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.’ Siddhartha Gautama Buddha” tweet=”‘You can search throughout the entire universe for someone who is more deserving of your love and affection than you are yourself, and that person is not to be found anywhere. You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.’ Siddhartha Gautama Buddha” coverup=”dHaEX”]

I have also come to realise that when we love ourselves, we find out where our power is and we also know the boundaries and when to say no. This way, no one can abuse that power or take advantage of us cos the truth is it can only happen if we let it. Get my drift?

Lets quickly run through some of the importance of self love…

Acceptance 

When you love yourself, you accept your positives and your flaws. It is important to note that acceptance doesn’t mean giving up, no! it actually means giving room for improvement, becoming a better version of yourself.

Boosts confidence 

See that guy/girl strutting around town with so much confidence oozing out of their pores and you’re like damn! if only  could be as confident as that? Well darlings, once you love yourself right and accept who you are provided you keep working on yourself, your confidence level triples and trust me most people love associating with confident people.

Inner happiness 

It enables you to make healthier choices and the best decisions across all areas of your life from your intimate relationships to you name it. It allows you to truly rejoice in other people’s good fortune rather than wondering “why, not me” or even resenting it. It enables you to be more genuinely loving towards others and to be of greater service to the world at large. Ultimately, the more you love yourself, the more everything and everyone you encounter benefits and there’s this feeling of inner peace and happiness.

Growth 

When you love yourself, you tend to stop with the self-reproach and build on the areas you feel needs to be worked on. You are alot stronger to deal with the ‘weaknesses’ and ‘flaws’ you feel you need to work on, instead of dwelling in self pity, self-reproach and depression.

There’s more but I don’t want this post to be too lengthy and I’m sure you all get where I am headed. So bear in mind that there is absolutely nothing wrong with self love…

Instagram | Facebook | Pinterest

 Images: Google