What is SELF LOVE? Its Importance and How to Build It

Self-love is a fundamental aspect of the personality of the human being as it conditions personal functioning on many levels. Encouraging its construction and consolidation is an important task to take into account on a personal level and even on a social level to contribute to the building confident and confident personalities with high levels of altruism and empathy that will motivate healthy social interactions and much more solidarity.

In Psychology-Online we will explain what is self-love, its importance and how to build it. We are also going to expose some important aspects to take into account regarding the issue of self-esteem and how to promote high levels of self-esteem.

Index

1. What does self love mean
2. What is self-love in psychology
3. Importance of self love
4. How to have self-esteem, dignity and self-esteem

Define the meaning of self love it is not an easy task. If we turn to the classic and current literature on the subject we can find multiple conceptualizations and ramblings about it. Voltaire, Nietzsche, Pascal, Rousseau, Espinosa, etc. are some of the many authors who have theorized in different ways on the subject of self-love.

In many of these explanations, a distinction is made between two forms of self-love, a positive one that would refer to self esteem as something natural and intrinsic to the human being related to the instinct of self-regulation and conservation of it, and another negative, which would have to do with pride, selfishness and vanity. In this article we will refer to the characteristics of the positive side, to the advantages it presents on health of the human being and the need to conserve it or work to incorporate / recover it to heal psychological wounds and emotional

Self-love would correspond to the concept of love for oneself used from more philosophical approaches. From psychology, the self-love has been scientifically conceptualized as self esteem. It refers to the valuation or estimate that a person has of himself.

In the words of Enrique Rojas, self-love or self-esteem would be "positive judgment about oneself having achieved a coherent personal framework based on the four basic elements of the human being: physical, psychological, social and cultural ".

Branden, N., author of the book "The six pillars of self esteem" considers that, although the main foundation of self-esteem is created during childhood and adolescence, Experiences and personal work during the following years can reinforce or modify our vision of ourselves themselves.

For the author "the Self-esteem (high or low) tends to generate self-fulfilling prophecies. " In other words, the perception we have of ourselves is determined by personal experiences; you are, in turn, condition our thoughts that will lead us to carry out one or other actions; The result of these actions will reinforce (or create, in the case of being incongruous) our personal beliefs that, again, will condition our thoughts, actions, etc. and so on.

Here precisely lies the importance of the level of self-love achieved:

• Low (negative) levels of self-esteem They will lead us to thoughts of personal underestimation; These will generate harmful behaviors towards ourselves (self-boycott or inhibition of behaviors) that will confirm the initial beliefs of low self-worth, the self-fulfilling prophecy, as affirmed by the author.
• Of way contrary, a high level of self-esteemIt will reinforce our mental schemes and our will towards positive action, the result of which will confirm the respectful assessment of ourselves.

According to the Psychiatrist Enrique Rojas, there are 9 keys that determine a good level of self-esteem or self-esteem:

1. Personal judgment: it must contain the aspects achieved and those to be achieved and the result of the assessment must be positive.
2. Self acceptance: the person accepts himself with his virtues and her defects.
3. The physical aspect: body morphology and physiological characteristics are accepted and integrated.
4. The psychological heritage: the positive acceptance of one's own personality (thoughts, intelligence, conscience, verbal and non-verbal language, will, vital interpretation, etc).
5. Socio-cultural environment: refers to the social environment in which the resources of interpersonal relationship are developed. Healthy relationships are indicative of a positive level of self-esteem or self-esteem.
6. The job: It is important that the work aspect is a source of personal satisfaction that allows us to dedicate ourselves to it with commitment and, at the same time, positively feed back on that dedication. Do you know the General scale of job satisfaction?
7. Avoid envy and comparison: this action can be a loss in personal esteem and is based on superficial evaluations that do not delve into really important personal aspects. To counteract it, it is important to forge your own personal life project that supports our vital steps.
8. Develop empathy: it is a symptom of personal maturity that allows us to understand the facts far beyond a subjective assessment biased by personal perceptions. In the following article you can see how to practice empathy.
9. Altruism: it involves giving to others from a respect for oneself. Altruism is a sign of a high level of personal maturity.

Personal work in the positive achievement of each of these aspects will favor the consolidation of a high self-esteem that will benefit our health, and therefore our life, to all the levels. In the following article you will find more information about how to improve self esteem.

This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

If you want to read more articles similar to What is self-love, its importance and how to build it, we recommend that you enter our category of Personal growth and self-help.

• Brande, N. (1995). The 6 pillars of self-esteem. Barcelona. Editorial Paidós
• Fernández Tresguerres, A. (2003). Of self-love. Perplexed guide. Revista el Catoblepas, critical magazine of the present. Num. 18, page 3.