“Loving yourself” is an action, not a feeling. When we think of romantic love, we think of the flush of hormones that gives us an ooey-gooey emotion. We rarely think of the daily tasks and commitments necessary to make someone else’s well-being as important as our own. The same goes for loving yourself: We think it’s the emotion that comes with holding yourself in high regard, when most of the time it’s more like standing up for yourself, having the courage to keep going, having the courage to quit, finding happiness despite the impermanence and unreliability of things, and so on.
