Hello guys We would have heard of this popular statement: You have to love yourself first before you can love others. But what does 'love yourself' mean? Is it pampering yourself? Doing things that you enjoy like watching movies or listening to songs etc? Focusing and developing on your interests like singing or painting etc? I hope you guys could advise me on this because I'm lacking greatly on self-love. I really dun know the true meaning of loving oneself and I feel it's the first step in order to improve my life. Thanks.
For me, loving yourself would mean acknowledging every part of your personality, the fact that it can't bechanged, and accepting it as who you truly are. Also, it means to not change yourself,what you like, or your personality to make others happy.
Love = respect. If you mistreat yourself people cannot expect you to do any different with them. Showing confidence, health and a balanced lifestyle are some of the musts, or at least that's how I see it.
It means to stop and think about who you really are as a person, and be happy with it rather than trying to make yourself into something else. There's a bit of a balancing act here. For example, I'm naturally pretty cynical, assuming the worst of everybody. I always try to improve myself by judging people less, being more accepting of things I personally don't like, and generally thinking more positively of people. I do not agonize over it and get pissed at myself for being this way. Figure out how you are, celebrate your good qualities, work on your bad ones, never put yourself down for it, and remember that everybody's struggling with something.
Loving yourself is essentially similar to loving someone in a long term relationship. It's not so much about looking in the mirror thinking "bitch I'm fabulous" but more about learning your flaws and accepting them without lowering your self esteem. It's about knowing there are things you can improve on, but not belittling yourself by acknowledging that. Loving yourself is more about acceptance and self-respect than anything else. You just have to know you're an imperfect human being with flaws- but also with many good traits. And that's completely okay. Some things that can help you love yourself do include just spending time alone, doing what makes you happy. When you love yourself, you don't change for other people. If you want to change something it'll be of your own accord.
Would defiantly agree loving yourself is enjoying every part of yourself. Instead of being ashamed about a part looking at it like this is something that I get to do. It takes time, trust me on that I finally achieved this last month.
I think hating oneself and loving oneself is kind of the difference between "I f***ed up. I suck. I am worthless. I will never be able to realize my dreams etc. etc." and "Oh, I f***ed up. That happened. Huh. Okay. What's next?" To not think that your failures are because of you yourself being a failure... I think that is part of loving oneself. This is, from me, strictly hypothetical, however, as it is indeed a foreign concept to me.
To love someone, yourself included, is a verb. Loving yourself means respecting who you are, and respecting and honoring who you want to become. Respect means there are boundaries, there are things you will not accept from others, there are situations you will not let yourself be put into, because, well, you love yourself too much to be put in a situation that is detrimental to you. Loving yourself means responding to yourself and not ignoring your own needs and aspirations. Loving yourself means knowing who you are, your likes and dislikes, your desires. It means actively taking care of yourself, not just for yourself, but for those you love as well. It does not mean shouting from the rooftops about how great you are, but it does mean the quiet confidence that comes from knowing self-respect.
