What does loving oneself mean? It means taking care of oneself regardless of the negative messages that have been pounded into one’s brain over the years. Some people learn as they grow through adulthood. Some never learn because of oversensitivity to what others have said during the course of their lives or from severe trauma that occurred throughout childhood. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the meaning and importance of what loving oneself truly means and the common misconceptions thereof. There are several steps to the process of loving oneself unconditionally. According to Deepak Chopra MD, the first step toward a person loving oneself is taking quiet time for oneself to reflect upon what one wants to change and secondly, getting in touch with one’s inner child. Meditation is an effective method for self reflection. It is also imperative for him to …show more content…
One of the biggest misconceptions is that loving oneself is considered selfish. In fact, this is far from the truth. There is a big difference between being selfish and genuinely loving oneself. Everything in life has a balance. Love doesn’t have to be limited; there is plenty of it for all of humanity. Another misconception about self love is that its focus is on one’s physical image. “There is a lot more to self love than the outside package that we present.” Sadly, society is very preoccupied with physical appearances and people just follow it. It is obvious that insecurity plays a big role on one’s self image. An additional misconception about loving oneself is that one sees himself superior to others. Self love doesn’t have anything to do with that. A good example of a person who deems herself superior is a prima donna. The word “prima donna” is well known due to media’s popular use of this kind of character. The principles of loving oneself teach that every individual is important and special. Respecting others is another valued
“The willingness to accept responsibility for one's own life is the source from which self- respect springs”- Joan Didion. Self respect and self esteem are two things many people can not live without. Everyday people are forced to make tough decisions which can alter their self respect or self esteem. The play A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, and the movie Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck both show the theme only through self- respect and self- esteem can people live with themselves.
In Jasmine Syedullah “The Abolition of Whiteness”, she confesses to her readers that “one of the things that had drown me into buddhism was the notion of no self. I was fascinated by the prospect of being Jasmine and not being Jasmine.” (16) Most of the times we suffer so much with trying to find ourselves that we become something else. We lost the feeling of wholeness, the feeling of belonging to our own bodies, and the feeling of happiness. Self compassion can often be misunderstood as not being aware of anything else rather than our own dignities. But the importance of self-compassion is treating ourselves gently instead of being harsh and self-critical to please others expectations for them. It’s common to beat ourselves up for faults big and small. But being kind to yourself is not only providing comfort in the moment, it is also committing, whenever possible, to acknowledging that some things are past our control, we become better at coping with failure and whatever consequences our actions may have caused because we learn to have compassion towards ourselves no matter the
Both author’s illustrate well, that a lack of love can have a profound effect on the behavior of a person. Whether a person has never experienced love by fortune or by design, the initial introduction of love into
What does sense of self-mean? It means what that person sees when they look in a mirror. Whether it is a decent, awful or an indifferent image. Everyone’s self-image is different, and that’s acceptable; normal even. No one person is exactly the same. The authors explain how a sense of self is like internal conflicts and the decision to lie in order to gain approval.
As Grogan (1999) explains, one’s estimation of his or her appearance referred to as body image. Body dissatisfaction develops when negative judgments about one’s physical body contradict the ideal perception of the perfect body (Szymanski & Cash, 1995; Grogan, 1999). Having issues with body image and dissatisfaction during the most critical developmental period may place adolescents at a high risk of developing eating disorders. The effect of social media on body image and eating behaviors can be explained by a number of theories. The sociocultural theory, which is described by Thompson, Heinberg, & Tantleff-dunn (1999), can provide a structure to better understand the phenomenon of body dissatisfaction along with eating disorders. This theory
People can never experience their true character when hiding behind a façade of self-doubt. Not only are these individuals hurting themselves, but they are also harming their relationships with others. Insecurity comes from the lack of confidence in an individual. Wanting approval is shown in those who are insecure. When this emotion grows it becomes something as ugly as jealousy. As well as an addiction to the dependency of another person. Nevertheless, insecurity is a powerful emotion that creates a negative effect on an individual’s ability to view themselves positively and impacts their
If you don’t have self-love, it’s hard to find what you aren’t familiar with. “Over and over again, Celie accepts abuse and victimization”(Henderson 67). Through victimization, self-blame starts to form over time. Celie wanted a clear statement of what was actually happening to her and why. She redirected her thoughts to the higher power, God.”Dear God, I am fourteen years old. I have always been a good girl. Maybe you can give me a sign letting me know what is happening to me.”(Proudfit 53) Blaming themselves, woman often search for the missing piece in their
“The nature of self-love and of this human Ego is to love self only and consider self only. But what will man do? He cannot prevent this object that he loves from being full of faults and wants. He wants to be great, and he sees himself small. He wants to be happy, and he sees himself miserable. He wants to be perfect, but he see’s himself full of imperfections” (49). When I was in Vancouver I tried so hard to be able to love myself, but all I could see was imperfections within a very lost soul. I tried to continually fuel this inner pain by turning to drugs to imitate the love and feeling that I was so strongly wishing for, and found that I was pushing myself even further into depression through the continual follies I was making by catering to these wants. “Truly it is evil to be full of faults; but it is still greater evil to be full of them and to be unwilling to recognize them, since that is to add the further fault of a voluntary illusion” (49). I was full of faults and was unable to recognize them until I was able to step back and reconsider my position and the choices I made. Through my wise decision of moving to Calgary, I was able to realize that I was not perfect and I am full of faults, but that it is something that I have been working on and I have been able to love who I am a substantially larger amount in
Upon reading Erich Fromm’s The Art of Loving, I gained a better understanding of what love really is. Fromm’s book puts love into perspective. He begins with several facts with regards to the attitude in which people treat love. They are the problems of how to be loved, the object to love as well as the confusion between the initial experience of falling in love and the permanent state of being in love, which had a great impact on me, as far as thinking about what love is.
We created our ego self in our attempt to protect ourselves from the losses we fear loss of self, loss of other, loss of security, loss of face. As children, when we didn’t get the love we needed, we decided that our true Self must be unlovable. In our attempt to feel safe, we buried our true Self and created the false self the ego, our wounded self. The ego self then went about learning how to feel safe through trying to control others and outcomes. The ego believes that having control over how people see us and feel about us, as well as over the outcome of things, will give us the safety we
Love is valued above all other possessions because of one’s natural desire to be desirable. When a person possesses another’s love, it is understood that he or she possesses it only because the other person wills it so. Therefore, because someone must be give love to have love, it makes it much more difficult to obtain and all the more valuable. Because love is so much more difficult to obtain than material possessions, it is much more important to most.
A noteworthy avenue of exploration resides in understanding the maximum capability of life, derived from loving oneself. By the same token, the importance of self-appreciation reflects our choices in connections to society. Recognition of one’s strengths and weaknesses, whole heartedly accepting of flaws, converts vital for progression. For example, taking care of health, reflects a practice of self-love. In return, a rewarding contribution to your body, generating positive spirits, and self-esteem. Confidently impacting for the greater good, self-love liberates self-determination and perseverance. Without this elementary need, we are minimizing our potential growth. Again, once all criteria are met, a likelihood of uncovering innovative opportunities as well as a successful
Self-love helps build the foundation of who we really are so if this foundation is not solid, life can feel shaky at times. When we truly start to love ourselves, things begin to fall into place for us and life itself begins to feel truly beautiful which is the way life was intended to be felt.
In conclusion, whether it be my three sisters, my parents, my boyfriend, or my friend Seth, we all deserve to be loved. The people around you are the people we should love the most because they are the people we have to interact with. If the world cannot learn to love, then we are doomed to war and famine. Love is the strongest thing in the world. I love others so they can love one another. Love is what my world revolves
When you truly love yourself life becomes wondrous, colorful, and bursting with great abundance and love. Loving yourself will enable you to be more inspired to reach for new heights to become all that you esteem to be. If you make loving YOU your highest priority I promise you that you will have a happier more fulfilling life.