What is Self Love?
The Ultimate Form of Healing
Self-love is a beautiful, winding journey of embracing your true self and celebrating the unique, powerful gifts you bring to the world. For me, this journey has been deeply transformative, taking me from a childhood marked by emotional instability and feelings of being unloved, unheard, and unseen, to becoming a confident, loving, and empowered woman. Growing up, my voice was silenced; I was afraid to ask for what I wanted and needed, I felt invisible, and I struggled to believe I was important. These experiences left me feeling unworthy and unloved, leading me to search for love outside of myself. Through many years of growth, searching, and learning, I discovered the power of self-love and its ability to heal.
I met many gifted healers and therapists along my path, each one providing the lesson I needed in the moment. Then, when I was 30, I went through a divorce, the biggest crisis of my young adult life. This led me on a healing journey for which I am profoundly grateful. Through therapy, I learned that my unhealed wounds were running my life and keeping me stuck in familiar and painful relationship cycles. It was then that I decided to take charge of my growth and understand what was happening behind the scenes so I wasn’t recreating my childhood patterns. I was led to a very gifted hypnotherapist who changed the course of my consciousness and my life. Through our work together, I began to rebuild myself in a healthier, more positive way.
My journey to self-love has been a lifelong exploration of growth, driven by a deep desire to understand my patterns and how they shaped my life. As I gained more awareness, I began making conscious choices instead of reacting out of comfort or habit. This shift was profound, marking the beginning of a new chapter where I started to reclaim my power and rewrite my narrative. It was not an easy path, but it was one filled with incredible liberation and fulfillment as I learned to align with my deepest truths and express myself authentically.
At the heart of self-love lies kindness and compassion towards yourself. I learned to forgive myself for past mistakes, understanding that I made mistakes but was not defined by them, and to see myself as a work in progress. This self-compassion helped me set healthy boundaries, ensuring I protected my emotional and physical well-being. It empowered me to learn to ask for what I want and to prioritize my needs without guilt. Through this practice, I nurtured my self-worth and self-confidence, recognizing that I deserve love and respect.
Vulnerability became another essential aspect of my self-love journey. Allowing myself to be vulnerable meant embracing my imperfections and acknowledging my fears and insecurities. Through somatic work with Integrative Body Psychotherapy (IBP), I realized it’s often the things I didn’t want others to see about me that ultimately connected me the deepest and allowed others to fully see me. Through the deep work of EMDR, I learned to accept myself more fully by healing past family traumas. It has been a continuous process of healing and growth, where I learned to honor my journey and celebrate my progress.
Ultimately, self-love has become a source of empowerment for me. It is the foundation upon which I build a life true to who I am. By loving myself, I reclaimed my power and learned to express myself authentically in a kind way, building my inner strength and guiding me to pursue my dreams with confidence and resilience. Through self-love, I found the freedom to be unapologetically me, and that is the greatest gift I have given myself—to remember who I truly am.