Baby, you should go and love yourself
The past couple of months have really helped me to delve deep into my inner-workings of self-love and respect. It’s funny because Justin Beiber’s song “ Love yourself” has become my inner- theme song (I ignore the lyrics, except for the you should go and love yourself part). Every time I hear it, it pumps me up and acts as a reminder to keep loving myself despite the ups and downs of daily life – thanks JB!
I tend to take meaning from the songs that come on the radio. I always thank the universe for showing me signs through the music that plays. The universe is truly a magical DJ. Are you paying attention to the signs?
The other day a Boyz-II-Men song came on the radio. And holy moly ladies and gents – let me tell you, I have always had a love affair with them. Nothing like some 90s R&B to get you excited. But while listening to “ I’ll make love to you”, I had a self-love epiphany.
I thought about how we are always so concerned about finding a mate or if we’re with a mate, maybe we’re concerned about receiving the love we deserve. Many times in my life, I’ve made up expectations of how a relationship would go only to be devastated that my imagination did not turn into reality (probably a good thing). So then you’re in a funk, you hear these sappy or sexy love songs on the radio and sigh “ I wish someone would sing that to me.” Well, forget that!
It’s a difficult time to be on this earth with all of these societal standards and how the media portrays love. We hear songs on the radio or watch movies and get ideas about love. But it’s all a bunch of baloney. We don’t need to get into deep discussions on our patriarchal society, gender norms, and implications from the media ,etc. I just want to say that love is hard, really hard. Life is hard. Being an authentic being and putting your heart out for the taking is rough business. Many people never fully put their heart out there. For me, I’ve had a difficult time with love because how can we expect love from others, TRUE love from others, if we’re not loving ourselves fully? Most importantly, we must make sure we’re loving our shadow self just as much as our light self.
SO I HAVE A PROPOSITION: with the universe as your DJ- start listening to the plethora of love songs on the radio and imagining that’s you singing the song to yourself.
Because the person you’ll spend the rest of your life with is…. ( drumroll please) YOURSELF. So baby, you should go and love yourself.
Let’s look at the Boyz-II-Men song, “I’ll make love you you.” How can you make this song just about you? We can get sensual and think of it in terms of physically making love to yourself (which is so incredibly important – own your deep sensual self in a safe and supportive environment). But making love to yourself can also be viewed as various self-care practices, positive self-talk, and so forth. How can you make love to yourself? (let’s be PG here).
It’s powerful to sing, “I’ll make love to you.” You’re ultimately saying, “ I will give ultimate, divine love to myself, I will own my power and all of the good and bad that goes along with me, and I will LOOOOVE MYSELF deeply.”
Whoa. Get it, people. Love yourself – It’s no an easy task. Go forth and conquer your heart.
Oh and for your listening pleasure, here are my Boyz:
Hey Annie,
Great website and great post! I love your writing. I look forward to reading more about your journeys in the future!
Thanks lady! Much love.