In my humble opinion there is a difference between being selfish and having self love. With this sometimes when people hear the word “self-love” they associate it with the being selfish. Self love is not selfish. Self-love is empowering and inspiring and something that people need to work on and should practice every day. Loving yourself doesn’t and shouldn’t take away from loving others, as being selfish does. Self-love allows you to embrace who you are and as a result, become better at loving not only yourself but others.

Having self-love and having respect for yourself leads you to have respect for others. Ever wonder why some people are so mean and judgmental? More often than not, it’s because they don’t love themselves and are taking out the way they feel about themselves on others. If you want to live selflessly, loving yourself first is a great place to start because the more you learn to respect and love yourself, the more you will love and respect others, which, ultimately, makes the world a much better place.

For example, we just passed Valentine’s Day, a holiday dedicated to expressing how much you love your significant other. Well, some of us don’t have a significant other, and we are left just with ourselves. Me being me and loving myself intently, decided to make this one full of treats. I started by getting a Scooter’s coffee which is nothing new for me but instead of my typical medium order, I splurged for a large cold brew. Throughout the day I told myself how much I loved myself and felt confident in knowing that I was happy and independent and didn’t need a man in my life to make me complete. Something that I get the most hate for is buying myself flowers, a tradition that I have kept up since my sophomore year. I also got my nails done and broke my typical clean eating self and made some delicious hot chocolate and ate popcorn mixed with peanut M&Ms. Overall, it was a day for me, myself, and I. All of this thought is just expressing my love for myself and not being selfish.

I have found that loving yourself makes you a happier, kinder, more positive person. The basic truth is this: if you love yourself, you’ll be happier. When you are happier, you will be nicer and kinder and more open to others. You’ll be more loving and more willing to trust, enjoy, and celebrate other people. You’ll look for the good in yourself and in others, as a result, you’ll have a better relationship with yourself and with the ones you love.

Although some might disagree, I firmly believe that loving yourself is an unselfish act because it leads to a more positive life for you — and the more positive your life is, the more positive you’ll be about the things and people around you. It’s easy to find excuses when it comes to doing something good for yourself. You can think of plenty of reasons why you should be doing something for someone else instead. But don’t let that little nagging voice in your head tell you that self-love isn’t worth it or it’s unobtainable. It’s possible for every single person to love him/herself, but it’s up to the individual to make it happen. If you aren’t already loving yourself and you have any doubts in your mind as to whether or not loving yourself is selfish, I hope this article has helped you realize that self-love is an unselfish act.