Is Self-Love Selfish?

Self-love and selfishness are two different things. Here is what makes the difference between the two!

So what exactly is self-love?

To my opinion, self-love is accepting and taking care of self above anything else. This isn’t bad. And this can’t be! How can the loving self be bad for someone? Because I believe, that if you can’t love yourself first then you can never love other people in life. If you can’t value your worth, your presence then you can’t do the same for others.

Love is such a pure emotion in this entire world.

Well, the idea of self-love was always there but we weren’t following to that extent until pandemic times. Because it was the most crucial time for us. We didn’t know what will happen the next day when everything was uncertain. In that case, mental health was always a concern for all of us. So, I believe, we learned how to prioritize things that are the most important to us. We have learned to value everything that is there in our lives, and most importantly take care of ourselves.

The dark side of self-love

Every coin has two sides. If one is positive then another has to be not so positive.

Well, this can be because everything in excess is harmful, even love sometimes. For example, sweets in excessive quantity may lead you to suffer diabetes, isn’t it?

And like that, self-love is no exception. Loving self, and prioritizing self is actually a very good thing but not in excess.

Imagine avoiding your friends every time they ask to hang out just because you need to wake up at 5:00 A.M. in the morning to start your day. Imagine avoiding dinner every night with your family just because there isn’t anything on the menu that you would rather have for dinner, your healthy stuff. Just imagine you are running after yourself, sometimes so much, and get yourself involved with yourself so much that when you turn back, you would regret not having family, friends, or anything else with you.

And then you realize, you have crossed your line of self-love, you enter selfishness.

It isn’t for them but for yourself.

We are humans and we require everything. We can go far with everything that we have in our lives.

And that’s how it works and it should work.

Final thoughts

I started understanding myself better following pandemics and started taking care of myself. But at the same time, I take out time for everything, like family, friends, fun, shopping, hanging out, and everything else. And that’s how I maintain a healthy balanced life which includes self-love but definitely not selfishness.

What about you?