Is self-love selfish?
I don’t think so. Why? We need to love ourselves to survive! Everybody has to love themselves enough to want a successful career, a loving family, a better life, or even just the will to continue living. Without self-love, people fall into depression, suicidal thoughts, physically fall ill, let their bodies decay, and let their ambitions die. To connect the two words selfish and self-love is to not really have an understanding of what it means to be selfish. It is not okay to think of only your well-being while others suffer but if you are completely selfless, people will take advantage of you. Self-love is great to an extent, because everybody knows the cliché ‘too much of anything is bad for you’. If one were to only love themselves to the point where they believe the whole world revolves around them, then that is narcissism. Self-love is the happy medium where one does not cause damage to themselves, their egos, and others around them. Loving yourself is not selfish it is necessary to survive and to learn how to value your time and self.
I chose to focus on self-love as a theme because it’s important to me and, I believe that it is relevant in everyone’s life. It is needed to persevere. It is also a topic that not many people choose to focus on, which is wild to me, because I believe self-love and self-esteem really influences one’s life. Learning to love yourself is more crucial for our generation, because we are constantly brought down by society, social media, people in positions of power, authoritative figures, family and the world around us. We aren’t pretty enough, we aren’t smart enough or tall enough, we lack uniqueness and originality, these are the ideals pushed upon us by society and if we don’t love ourselves for who we are then we drown in the voices in our head that tells us we aren’t good enough. Self-love is knowing confidence and accepting yourself, it’s looking out for yourself, and doing well for yourself without dragging other people down. It is important to spread awareness about how impactful loving yourself can be, especially in these times.
Self-love has the power to take your life in new directions, it can give you the confidence, if you don’t have enough of it, to make better choices for yourself and to tear down negative habits; such as giving in to peer pressure, giving up on your goals, drastically changing your natural look, and not understanding how you should be loved by others.
Today’s society is obsessed with self-image and making fast money. Many people are exposed to this false idea of how to achieve happiness, it is important to show them that beauty does not look one way, that a lot of money does not equal happiness and that it is great love and respect for others the way you should love and respect yourself that fosters positive change. It is my mission to spread this awareness: Self-love is powerful.
UAlbany Project MyStory 
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