NFL wide receive Terrell Owens often said, “I love me some me!”
The USA Today has a special page just for hip hop superstar Kanye West that states “No one loves Kanye more than Kanye” and proceeds to rattle off endless Kanye quotes about how great he thinks he is.
Look up any quote from boxing great Muhammad Ali & you’ll see something along the lines of, “My only fault is that I don’t realize how great I really am.”
These are just three examples of people who seemingly love themselves a lot – maybe to a narcissistic level – but the question I’m asking myself is, “What’s so wrong with that?”
Why not love yourself to a point where people question your sanity?
And yes, I understand there is a fine line between loving yourself and narcissism/selfishness…
Love is all about giving and receiving and if you can give enough care, attention and sympathy to yourself, most probably you can give it to others as well. You’ve heard that we can’t love others if we cannot love ourselves. Love flourishes when we give it to other people, but love always starts with ‘me’.
Now, I might be off my rocker a bit here, but I don’t think it’s possible to love one’s self too much – even in the cases of T.O., Kanye and Ali.
That being said, here are 5 reasons why you should start loving yourself more (in a non-narcissistic fashion).
1. You’ll look better
It’s really simple. You can concentrate on your strong points instead of bothering about your weaknesses and imperfections. Everybody has imperfections but those who love themselves don’t care about them. For example, I stutter and will never change it. I had obsessed with this problem for years and I couldn’t see that aside from the stutter, I had a lot of other great qualities. But when I accepted that imperfection about myself I became even more confident & handsome.
2. You’ll accept who you are
Yup, I know all my positive and negative sides and I accept them. It doesn’t mean I’m satisfied with all myself – I just accept it. Loving yourself doesn’t mean that you should stop improving yourself. It just helps you realize that you are the only one, with your unique traits, qualities and potentialities. It gives a great sense of confidence.
3. You’ll be more confident
We all love confident and charismatic people. This is something our inner subconscious desires cannot do without. People who love themselves are more likely to get a better job, promotion and more friends and admirers. I think it’s a crucial reason to love yourself. And it goes without saying that as your love for yourself goes up, so will your confidence.
4. Your world will change
When we fall in love with someone else, everything around us becomes more beautiful and appealing – it’s that honeymoon phase. Falling in love with yourself is no exception. It enables you to look at things, people and life from another perspective, a better perspective. But the most important thing is that all these changes are about your perception only.
5. Your family/future family will be better
When you love yourself, you know what you deserve. In this sense I’d like to follow my oldest sister’s example – Judy. My sister and her husband still have a very tender and warm relationship, even though they’ve been married for more than 10 years and have 2 children. I’ve never noticed any sign of contempt or lack of respect between them. I know perfectly well that my sister wouldn’t stand for even a second of this. And this proves my point – when you love yourself you will never be ill-treated. You won’t stand for it. And this is a huge key for a healthy family life.
Self-love can make you a better person. It improves your physical, psychological and emotional state.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this – comment below.