The Importance of Self-love

I came across this quote by Kim McMillen:

"When I loved myself, I began leaving whatever wasn't healthy. This meant people, jobs, my own beliefs and habits. My judgement called it disloyal. Now I see it as self-loving." - Kim McMillen

How many times do we fail to see our value? Perhaps we have been in a job or relationship so long, we feel worn away. Perhaps we feel that to leave it means we have failed. I love the line

"My judgement called it disloyal; now I see it as self-loving,"

as it implies that in order to stay, we have compromised or misread our value system; the truth it would seem, was found within. I then came across a poem entitled "Self Love" by Lang Leav - it sums up perfectly what I am attempting to convey:

Self Love

Once when I was running, from all that haunted me: to the dark I was succumbing - to what hurt unbearably.

Searching for the one thing, that would set my sad soul free.

In time, I stumbled upon it, an inner calm and peace; and now I am beginning to see and to believe, in who I am becoming - and all that I've yet to be.

- Lang Leav

Photo by De'Andre Bush on Unsplash