Self-Love Series Part I: What is Self-Love?

What does self-love mean to you?

As we enter the month of February, (also known as the month of love!), rather than only focusing on showing affection for those around us, what about a little self-love?

The first step to enhancing one’s self-love is to understand exactly what it means.

Let’s start with what self-love ‘isn’t'

Self-love isn’t something that we either have or don’t have, or just one day wake up to find.  It’s a state of being that when we continuously strive for, we are able to identify and improve on our weaknesses, as well as our strengths. Self-love also is most definitely not something that we can find in other people, relationships or products. It’s not simply a state of feeling good – it’s much more.

So then, what is self-love?

Self-love is a state of appreciation for oneself. Sounds pretty simple, right? But as we continuously strive to achieve this state of appreciation, we come to realize just how difficult that proves to be.

To get a little more complicated, we can define self-love as a state of appreciation for oneself that grows from actions that support both our physical and psychological growth.

It's a state of mind that needs to be cultivated and nurtured in a manner that allows us to not just acknowledge our weaknesses or failings, but to accept them for what they are and begin to formulate a positive way in which to address them.

Self love also allows us the ability to identify our strengths and areas in which we thrive, so that we can be proud of what we are capable to accomplishing.

Self-love is personal. It’s no one else’s to take, as much as it’s no one else’s to give. It’s not a number of likes on a photo, or receiving compliments on our physical appearance or actions. It comes from within, and no matter what goes on outside of that, the amount of self-love is not altered.

Self-love is unconditional. Nothing that you do can lessen your self-love.

Now, I encourage you to think about your own self-love. Does it need work? What is it that gets in the way of allowing you to enhance and develop your self-love? The first step to one's self-love is to understand what it is and where we stand on our own individual journey to achieving it.