Many of us were told as children that loving ourselves is selfish. That you need to think and take care of others first, and only then – about yourself. That “I” is the last letter in the alphabet, and so on.

And we are used to relegating ourselves to the background. For yourself, everything is last.

But there is a very big “But…”

When you don’t love yourself, you expect others to love you.

When you don’t take care of yourself, you expect others to take care of you.

When you don’t accept yourself, you expect others to accept you.

Can you imagine the burden of expectations we place on our loved ones?

It seems to me that this is what egoism is – to expect that you will be loved, accepted, cared for. And don’t do it for yourself.

We do everything for others in the first place and expect that they will reciprocate us, that they will fill our inner emptiness with their love and care. And when this does not happen or does not happen in the quantities that we expect or need, this leads to ??

❗️ offended

“For your sake…”, “I gave you the best years…”, “You owe me…” – out of resentment we reproach relatives (most often children and spouses).

When you take care of yourself first of all, love yourself, accept yourself, then these feelings become enough for others – we begin to take care of them and love them not out of a desire to receive something in return, but to do it disinterestedly and unconditionally.

And it’s not selfish at all.

Do not blame relatives for not enough love, attention, care – this is only one of the reasons why you should learn to love yourself.