Self-love: The first path to finding love and worth
“You, yourself as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.”
-???????Buddha
Until recently, I thought self-love was selfish. ?I also thought that self-love was the same thing as self-care.?But then, I realized no amount of sleep and exercise were going to make me feel loved.?I know now that self-love is being able to direct warm and caring feelings of love towards myself, unapologetically and unconditionally. ?Self-love is not at the expense of love for another, it is a love and acceptance of self that leads to growth.
Many of us struggle with the idea of self-love.?Honestly, it even sounds strange to say out loud.?Yet without self-love, we are unable to feel love from others and often miss opportunities that nurture our growth. In our 6,000-person quantitative study on love and worth, we found that less than half of respondents often or always practice self-love. For many of us, myself included, the fear of facing our own pain and emotions holds us back. Others are cautious about the dangers of excessive self-love, often seen as selfishness or self-indulgence.
Why is a healthy self-love important to elevating the human experience? Three reasons: We come up against obstacles that regularly challenge our intrinsic worth every day at work; We need to see ourselves as worthy to be our best self to others around us at work; And we must acknowledge our own worth if we are going to grow personally as well as professionally.
In Elevating the Human Experience: Three Paths to Love and Worth at Work, I describe three paths to finding love and worth at work. The first path, that of the self, is an inward path where we learn to love our self and recognize our own fundamental human worth. It is the path of becoming better at loving and accepting ourselves before we do anything useful before we even show up at work.
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During a particularly painful part of my own journey, a friend and mentor convinced me that cultivating self-love would help me become a better leader at work. ?She encouraged me to write down “30 reasons why you are loveable.” ?At first I thought she was joking about the relationship between self-love and the kind of personal growth needed to become a better leader.?It turned out she wasn’t. ?It took me three weeks to come up with the first item on that list: I am loveable because I have a warm smile. After many stops-and-starts and a great deal of soul-searching, it ends with: ?I am loveable because I can extend grace to myself.?I dare you to try making your own list. ?Please share one thing that makes you loveable in the comments below. ??
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2 年Hi Amelia, This article is something I can relate to. There are often time where I do not think I am good enough or I am not happy with myself. You must love yourself first before you can love anything or anyone. Knowing that there is still awareness for this is comforting. After all... we are still human.
Medical Assistant
3 年I am lovable because I have a kind heart