Love ought to overflow and not be redirected | Art of Introspection and Self Love Pt.1

Loving your neighbours as you love yourself is what we are called to do but how do we do this if we don't even know how to properly love ourselves. (I am not stealing this from that TikTok song💀). Self love itself can take different forms besides the much enjoyable trips to parks or the activities that bring us relief. One major aspect of self-love that seems to have a positive long lasting effect is investing in self and self improvement.Spending time to eradicate the faulty foundations and moulding ourselves into the better versions of ourselves is key for the relationship we have with ourselves and with external parties. Love in itself is supposed to overflow, not redirected. Redirecting love opens us up to dryness, high expectations from external parties who might not even be in a better place than we are with themselves. I believe that for one to even get to the point where they love themselves they need to depend on a love greater than their own. Focusing on the Love God has towards us makes us fully understand what love actually is moreover besides our faults it gives us a benchmark and a clear indisputable truth. After dwelling in this truth, we start to have the love that has been freely gifted to us overflow to others.We also head back to the introspection of the various gardens in our lives. We come across the truth with regards to understanding that we aren't the only planters in our gardens. Society, culture, and various ideologies plant certain seeds in our gardens which makes it important for us to regularly introspect and check what is growing in different areas of our lives and moreover the source of such plants