Love Yourself

 

Self-love is often misunderstood. It sounds like we don’t care about other people. It sounds selfish and self-centered. Yet it’s the most important step we can take toward health and happiness.

Health care professionals talk a lot about self-care. They tell us to be aware of our needs and take care of them. Otherwise, we will not be able to care for others in a healthy way. My uneducated mother used to tell me not to be a door mat for others, to stand up for myself. She had the right idea.

Sometimes it’s hard to love ourselves when we make mistakes or look at our weaknesses. Everything looks bleak, and we see others as so much better, so much more loveable. Negative self-talk can be very debilitating.We need to look at our mistakes as opportunities to learn from, our weaknesses as steps to build on. Many of the world’s great leaders tell how they acquired self-knowledge from their mistakes. Sometimes we need help from friends or counselors to see ourselves as worthwhile and valuable.

Self-esteem is necessary to succeed in any relationship. If we don’t love ourselves, we can’t love others. We will be taken advantage of and end up feeling used and very unhappy.

Even Scripture encourages self-love. St. Paul says in his Letter to the Corinthians. “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst?” (3:17).  If God lives in us, we must be lovable, for God is love.  As God’s temple we are beautiful and strong. With this assurance we can reach out to others with love and kindness.