The practice of self-love is a conscious choice

If I were to ask you to make a list of the things you love about yourself, would it be short or long? What if I asked you to make a list of the features you dislike and the aspects that you constantly criticize yourself for? While it is very difficult for most of us to see the beautiful aspects of ourselves, it is child's play for us to focus on the parts we do not like.

The reason for this is hidden in our childhood years. The foundations of how to love ourselves are laid by the behavior of the adults around us as children. If we grew up in an environment where we were abused and criticized emotionally, physically or verbally, we are less likely to turn into a fully loving adult.

By the way, when talking about loving yourself, if you think of cooking good meals for yourself and taking care of your hygiene, you are not alone. Self-love and self-care are concepts that are often confused. Although self-love includes self-care practices, the basis of self-love is to accept ourselves with our pluses and minuses. A person can continue to care for himself even though he does not accept himself as he is. Therefore, it is useful to underline the difference between the concepts of self-love and self-care.

Again, the concept of self-love should not be perceived as "let's accept ourselves as we are and take our place". Of course, let's try to change our behaviors that we don't like, but while doing this, let's not knock ourselves down because we have these behaviors. Let's treat ourselves with compassion and kindness.

Unfortunately, some people treat the concept of self-love as a crime. However, self-love is one of the most necessary conditions for psychological resilience. Can we say that someone who constantly complains about himself, who criticizes himself for the slightest mistake, and who does not have peace in his inner world, is happy? Don't you think it's sad to treat oneself as if one is an enemy in an already difficult world?

Self-love should not be perceived as a trend, a passing fashion. Self-love is a necessity, not a luxury. If a person does not work on the wrong messages he heard about himself during his childhood, if he does not heal his childhood wounds, he will not be able to reach full spiritual integrity, and this will affect him all his life. It should not be forgotten that giving self-love is a choice that we must make consciously every day. I wish you to always make your choices in favor of your own well-being…