Self love is social justice
Self love is social justice
Self love is social justice
This is an idea I’ve been sitting on for a little while.
At its most simple and brief, the notion is a marriage between the things that I’m most passionate about:
- Learning to be my best self
- Figuring out how to make the world a really awesome place to be for more than a lucky minority.
The latter has been a focus of mine since high-school but I always struggled to tie down what injustices I should focus on and what actions I could reasonably do to get there.
There are a lot of problems with the world and infinite ways to go about solving them. Here’s a list of ones I’m particularly concerned with and am still trying to understand and address (in society and within my own actions) everyday:
- Homelessness
- Income Inequality
- Gender Inequality
- Racial Inequality
- People that are mean for no good reason
- Miscommunication
- The jail system
- Homogenous Beauty Standards
- Fear of being wrong
- Self Righteousness
- Jealousy
- Bullying
- Environmental Awareness
- Speciesism…
What connects all these issues (and the many others that I haven’t named expressley) is the single belief that whether or not I’m able to convince millions, my viewpoint matters and what I want for my life and my world matters and I am every bit as entitled to change the standards that don’t serve me as anyone else is.
And that, folks, is the beginning of some radical self love.
Because self love is more than bath bombs and affirmations, it’s taking the time to get to know yourself, understanding your own agenda, and the history that causes it. It’s about getting honest about your motivations and truthful about how it affects you.
Self love means figuring out what you need and what you want. It’s knowing the difference between the two and harnessing self-control and self discipline in order to build a life that feels good to you.
Self love is both unconcerned and deeply empathetic.
Because with self love comes an understanding that everything you do has an effect on your life, on others lives and on the world at large. When you love yourself you realize that you, a bundle of organs in a meat sack, are actually powerful as heck!
You come to terms with the fact that every choice you make is your own and that you can take responsibility for both the good and the bad within yourself and still be a person that is worthy of love and respect.
You start seeing the many ways in which you are wonderful. You also acknowledge the ways in which you have screwed up, and most importantly, you understand that you can (and should) try again. You realize you’re still learning and that this is okay. You realize this is all true for others, too.
And just like that, you’re forgiving people, forgiving yourself and working with others to build a common existence that doesn’t suck, but also isn’t perfect — something that falls in the glorious inbetween (just like all of us).
You stop comparing yourself.
You stop hating yourself.
You stop comparing others.
You stop hating others.
You start fostering your own growth and the growth of those around you.
You start creating a better world. A more just world.
When you take the time to love yourself (and encourage others to love themselves), you’re actually doing everyone a huge favor. So, for me, for you, for the children, for the planet, for justice, for peace, for glory, for Sparta —
Love yourself.
With love and light,
AH.
Angelique Herring 