Internet is obsessed with the word self-love. Google “Self-love” and you will find uncountable articles on it. From “How to love yourself” to “Why self-love is important”, there is everything. But when it comes to actually practicing self-love, we often tend to get diverted from its true meaning. Self-love is obviously about loving ourselves. We all know how important it is to first love ourselves but we don’t really know how to do it in the right way. In our quest to practice self-love, we end up doing things that are everything but self-love. Here’s a list of such common misunderstandings and mistakes-
Getting Obsessed With Your Dreams, Goal, And Results
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Loving yourself doesn’t necessarily mean you HAVE to fulfil all your dreams and achieve all your goals. That’s just putting undue pressure on your body and mind. Self-love is doing exactly the opposite. It’s about releasing the pressure and calming down. If you treat your body like a machine and get obsessed with your goals, you will do more harm to yourself than good.
You need to show yourself some compassion. You have to become your favourite confidante. You have to learn to forgive yourselves for the mistakes you make and believe in the journey. It is the journey, the process that matters the most. That’d be self-love.
Becoming A Control Freak
I don’t know who told you this but controlling your environment and living your life with a rigid plan isn’t self-love at all. You might think it is because it gives YOU control but if you think about it, it is only making you live the life of a slave. Living life freely is about taking on one day at a time. Of course you must be prudent and you must draw boundaries (that’s self-love because that’d actually protect you). Live every day and learn every second. Do not be rigid. Do not try to control things. Self-love is in living an honest and free life. It is not in the rigidity of control and plans.
Being Selfish
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This is the most common misunderstanding amongst us. Every now and then, we mistake self-love for selfishness. It is important to understand that being selfish means completely disregarding the interests and needs of other people. Being selfish means only caring about yourself and going to any extent for that. That can never be self-love.
Self-love is more about responsibility. It is being responsible for your own happiness. It is NOT about seeking happiness at the cost of others. Rather, it is about articulating your interests and needs in order to be heard and taken into consideration. It is about believing in yourself and seeking true happiness.
I hope you will never repeat these mistakes again!
