Self-Love

Self-love

“Stop acting so small. You are the universe in ecstatic motion.”

Love is the sweetest of all emotions, yet the most complex!

It takes a lifetime and a half to understand love. It is love alone that is the true emotion and everything else we feel is the absence of love. All other so-called emotions spring from not having love within us, be it hatred, stress, anger, or anything else.

The most important form of love that can exist is self-love!

Self-love is regard for one’s own well-being and happiness. Research shows that people who do not have love and respect for themselves are either under-achievers or greatly stressed and anxious despite their proven success. This can be seen as an aspect of self-love that is conditional, i.e. “I am only lovable when I am successful and so it is of prime importance to succeed.”

On the contrary unconditional love is when you can love and respect yourself just because you are a human being or simply because you have chosen to do so. You can love yourself because you need the compassion and support, and not because you have earned it. Although unconditional self-love may be difficult to comprehend, it is totally liberating.

A lot of studies have shown that self-love is the key to mental well-being and it keeps depression and anxiety at bay. Today’s world is demanding and sometimes unbearably noisy. As a consequence, we end up being too harsh on ourselves, often not realising the negative impact it has on our physical, emotional and mental well-being.

Love is the only force that keeps us going and makes us humane. In this world, we are required to work, think and act as if we are programmed robots. We all need love and we spend most of our time and energy on loving others – be it friends, family, children. We all like sharing love with others but do we ever stop in our spot sometimes and think, “Do I love myself enough?” And this is one of the most important questions because someone who practices self-love will never need to depend upon others to be happy. It is simply empowering!

Self-love is not selfish; it simply makes you a priority for yourself. We become capable of seeing ourselves as nothing more than human. We then are able to accept our flaws and fabulous sides equally. We appreciate all that we are and accept all that we aren’t. Some very simple ways of boosting self-love are positive self-talk, being mindful of yourself (mindfulness meditation helps), positive affirmations, NOT comparing yourself to anyone, surrounding yourself with positive people, exercising, eating healthy and forgiving easily and frequently- including yourself!

Self-love has many benefits; the greatest benefit is greater life satisfaction through development of positive attitude towards life. When we learn to love ourselves, we stop looking to go with the flow… we become the flow!