Self Love by Karen

Self Love by Karen - September 2022 Scholarship Essay

The one piece of advice that I would give my past self is to love myself. I think that the doors open when you learn to how to love yourself. You are in control and can take care of your needs.

It is important to love yourself because it makes you happy. You can develop a positive outlook on life. Self-love provides self-esteem, self-confidence, and a sense of self-worth. These values greatly benefit our health, the ability to thrive, and help create a better society.

There is a motivational theory that emphasize self-love as a crucial need and its importance. In Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, there are five levels of needs, and self-love begins at the fourth level. The foundation or first level of needs is physiological needs in which we need food, water, shelter, and clothing to survive or thrive. Next, we need to satisfy our safety needs, the second level, such as financial and emotional security, social stability, health, and wellness. Before we can focus on health, we need to supply ourselves with nutrition in food and water. Without them, we cannot strive to the next level. Another example would be the difficulty in finding employment if an individual cannot afford clothing for a job interview. After safety needs are secure, love and belonging needs, the third level, require fulfillment through intimacy or connections with family and friends. People have social needs; we need to feel that we belong in our society. Once the first three levels are accomplished, we can move to the fourth level which is esteem. At this level, we can develop self-respect, confidence, and self-worth. As I mentioned earlier, self-love creates many opportunities for one to grow as an individual. The final level is self-actualization where we can reach our most potential. It is a far stretch to reach our most potential if we do not have the ability to succeed at esteem.

There is an importance to self-love. Sometimes, we lose track and forget how to take care of ourselves because we are too busy focusing on making others happy. If you spend all your energy on others, you have less room to pull yourself together to accomplish your goals. The journey to self-actualization is a difficulty path when you are not able to satisfy the need of esteem. Self-love isn’t a selfish act. Your own needs matter.