Self-love means…

What self-love means to me is…fighting for yourself. Fighting for yourself without allowing for surrender. There’s no option to surrender because surrendering is too dark to consider. Of course, there are times for rest. There are times for retreating, reevaluating, and changing strategies. There are times to venture alone and times to recruit help. Self-love is sometimes tears. Self-love is “no” when you want to say no and “yes” when you want to say yes and never the other way around. It is battles behind closed doors that no one ever sees where you beat back the darkness with the light. Even if sometimes the light seems to fade away too quickly. Self-love is being completely vulnerable with yourself. It’s acknowledging and looking at the shadowy parts of yourself, the parts you hide away or you’d rather not see, and saying, “it’s ok.” Self-love is a muscle, a tree, a building. It doesn’t just happen, it grows. You don’t wake up one morning bursting with self-love. You fill yourself up, one drop at a time, until it’s a regular rhythm of your life.