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Understanding Self-Love
A common misconception about self-love is that it is all about the ego and selfishness. Nothing is further from the truth. In his book, The Art of Loving, psychologist Erich Fromm made this observation:
“.. it is a widespread belief that, while it is virtuous to love others, it is sinful to love oneself. It is assumed that to the degree to which I love myself I do not love others, that self-love is the same as selfishness. This view goes far back in Western thought…”
(Erich Fromm, The Art of Loving)
What exactly is self-love? It is the nurturing of our souls. It is the caring actions we take to enhance our well-being and cultivate our personal growth. Part of self-love is eating right, exercising right, resting right, thinking right, and giving ourselves enough space to ponder about life and understand ourselves. The nurturing and caring of oneself in no way means that we have to be uncaring of others. In our modern capitalist society, there is a tendency for us to think that we are in a zero-sum game, that other people’s gain is my loss, and vice versa. But is this really true?
The zero-sum game view of the world is often taken for granted. Perhaps it stems from the perspective of a corporate strategist — in a highly competitive industry, one company’s gain in market share translates directly into other companies’ loss in…
