Everybody is talking about love. TV, radio and internet are full of love stories; we dream it, believe it and desire it. But in all the love-madness we often ignore the most important essence of love – the love for ourselves. I’m not talking about ignorance, vanity or excessive regard for one’s own advantage. I’m talking about sincere and honest love for who we are.

Why do so many fail the test of self-love? How does self-love evolve? Do we really understand it?

Self-love is a combination of several qualities. It is knowledge mixed with appreciation, passion, tenderness, friendship and affection, all combined with gratefulness for everything that is and everything that we are. Gratefulness is such a powerful quality! It turns anything into enough. But one final ingredient is essential to make self-love complete, one ingredient which is often forgotten or misinterpreted. It’s called respect. To honestly love ourselves we must respect who we are.

We can respect someone and not love them, but we can never wholeheartedly love someone without respecting them. The same is true of self-love. Many claim they love who they are, yet they do terrible things to their body and mind and this in turn reflects negatively upon their love for others. What they are lacking is sincere self-respect. With self-respect comes true love and those who love truly can never loose entirely.