To love and let love, starting with yourself

By Takiya Smith
For the past few years I have embarked on an amazing journey of love. Loving myself, loving others and, in turn, learning to let others love me. Loving oneself might not necessarily sound impossible, just as much as letting others love you sounds inane. However, believe it or not, loving oneself as well as the latter reference of loving others doesn’t always come first hand, second nature or internal as we would all like to think.
For starters, let’s define love as an infinite and exponential form of emotion, thought, and contentment towards a person, place or thing. Webster’s defines love as an intense feeling of deep affection, however, being in love is not the subject at hand. When we love ourselves, infinitely, it means to be never ending and forever. Loving, exponentially, means to have a continuous and rapid growth of increase. Furthermore, an emotion is a state of mind that replicates our thoughts into feelings and ultimately leads to being verbalized or actualized.
When we can begin to place the very focus of these things on ourself, not worrying about what or how we appear to others, self-love begins. Ultimately, the expected result is one that brings a peace, joy, confidence and sense of happiness that can not be taken or replaced. Therefore, one being happy with themselves — not allowing the thoughts, intentions, motivations, words or actions of others to be controlling factors — effortlessly offers the option to begin to love.
Loving yourself, first and foremost, teaches you to love others and when we have a genuine love for others it allows others to love us. The world would and could be such a great place but let’s start with ourselves first, learning to love and let love.