The Love You Give Yourself

“I searched for myself and found only God. I searched for God and found only myself.”

Before you can love another person well, you must first stop being at war with yourself. Not because self-love is a prerequisite to being loved — but because the love you give others will always be shaped by the love you withhold from yourself.

If you believe you are fundamentally unworthy, you will attract love that confirms that belief. You will push away the love that contradicts it. You will test and test until the love breaks, because deep down you expected it to.

Self-love is not vanity. It is not selfishness. It is the quiet, daily practice of treating yourself with the same compassion you would offer a person you deeply care for.

Start there. Everything else follows.

Related Reflections

Themes that often travel alongside love.