What SELF-LOVE means to Different Women

There’s nothing more frustrating than when one person’s ideas, habits or beliefs tend to define an entire population in general.  For instance, when “women” are all categorized as acting a certain way in certain situations.  Or perhaps, if you practice a certain faith and are assumed to be a certain way based on the experiences others have had with someone of a similar religious background.

The same can be said about terms we use in everyday settings.  What we wanted to do was to hear from many women what the popular term “self-love” means to them when they read about it on various posts or published works.

The answers might surprise you…

When polling our audience, we received a ton of great responses.  For starters, Krissy S. says “Self love to me means...scheduling a break for myself to be alone (even if it is just a shower at midnight when I can be left alone), a girls night/day out once a month!, and reminding myself that I am doing the best I can in the season I’m in because let’s face it, “mom guilt” is REAL!”

So, here self-love is just time with the SELF alone or with friends as a woman without children.  The SELF minus the role of Mom. Because, remember motherhood was ADDED to your resume, not completely swapped out.

Tamika B. shared her take on “self-love” and what it means to her: “For me self love is being able to be still and quiet so I can clear my mind of everything so that I can put the important stuff in perspective. I also do all my girly stuff. Mani and Pedi. Maybe a massage. I feel like I work hard so I can play hard.”  

For her, it appears that self-love is sometimes self-care, sprinkled with an intentional bout of self-enlightenment.

Veronica takes an approach that projects love back onto the self after expending it on others for so long. “As a woman and mother, by default, we show love and care for those in our families daily. We care for them even to the detriment of our own health and wellness. Self-love means that it is ok to stop and care for yourself once in a while, even weekly if necessary.”

Michele R. likes to think of it as making herself priority. “Putting myself at the TOP of the list every once in a while. If I'm not at MY best, how can I help others?”  A solid point for certain.

Kristen L. kept self love simple.  We can’t help but agree with her response, “Nap.” 

And then, of course, there’s always the type of self-love that brings about thoughts of self-gratification. Mimi W. simply posted a gif of a woman raising a brow as if implying self-pleasure. To which a few others responded with “great minds think alike.”

So, what say you, lady?  What do you think of when you hear or heed the term SELF-LOVE?