There is this dettol advert that goes ‘if I don’t take care of them, who will?’ I’ll switch it up and say, “if I don’t love myself, who will?. Self love basically is self acceptance, self respect, self forgiveness and self improvement. I know most people have sometimes wished there was one part of their body or character they would love to change! There was a time I had wished I was tall and fair, but now I so love my dark and short self, in fact some people think I’m small and cute! *smiles*.
When I was in high school I had class mates that always reminded me of how short and dark I was, then I thought I was ugly, short, black, muscular and so I lived a sad life, I didn’t feel worthy enough to associate with my mates, and we pay the same school fees oh. As I grew up I began to appreciate myself, started loving my features, respecting myself and then I realized I smiled more and attracted good people to me, I began to freely give out that love inside me because I had so much to give, I truly began to love myself. But the point is I had to accept myself and love myself before I could accept the love from others.
Sometimes loving yourself means getting out of some sort of relationship, partnership, or deals. Remember you are out to improve yourself, get the most out of you. So how’s that going to work if you’re in a bad marriage with a man that keeps abusing you emotionally and physically, or even in a relationship where the moment you think you’re moving forward is when you start drifting backwards. Do you have kids? Is that why you choose to stay in that unproductive emotional starving relationship? I’ll let you know that, kids are very intuitive they know things and sense things, you don’t want to raise a child that thinks he/she can’t fend for themselves, or accepting a certain lifestyle is the only option, then what have you achieved, you have raised another being to not have self respect, or self appreciation.
Remember self love is self respect and self acceptance, so it’s best you accept that you and your friend, colleague or whoever you seem to compare yourself with is on a different path of their life. They accepted and loved themselves that’s why they are flourishing. The nose or lips is to big will begin to look small or normal once you come to love and appreciate it. Good example, you know how there’s always that one friend that gets on people’s nerves but is your friend why? Because you have come to ignore and accept the flaws that comes with them. It’s the same with you, if you have a problem with talking too much, keep a mental check note, if you have anger issues, see a therapist or engage in anger management excercises, that way you’re loving yourself and improving yourself.
Remember that most people with addiction problem started out with the “loving myself” approach, loving yourself means adopting new habits and shedding or working on old habits, it means taking healthy decisions. If you love yourself you would want to take care of your body, the clarity of your mind, the cleanliness of your spirit.sometimes you have to make decisions like work out, or cut down on sugar intake or cut that person off your life.
Be careful though not to not let the foundation of your self love be on what can be seen like your body, because you should know that you are not your face, or body, those are just five percent of what makes you, your spirit, your soul, your character, charisma, everything! adds up to be you, so you have to embrace that and work towards improving it. Besides how can you know how to love your neighbor if you don’t know how to ‘properly’ love youself.
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