During the final night of their “Love Yourself: Speak Yourself [The Final]” tour, bandleader Kim Namjoon shared: “I want to give a round of applause to BTS and ARMY who have endured for the past two and a half years in order to love ourselves.” He stated that although the tour had ended, the path and journey to find ways to love themselves should not. He cried as he said, “I wish there was something even better than the word ‘love,’ but I really love you. I’ll keep loving you even more in the future.”
What does the word “love” mean?
Drawing inspiration from the band, Namjoon had touched on the similarity of pronounciation between the words “people” and “love” in the Korean language, and “love” and “live” in the English language. And it is no surprise that these words would be grouped together — we shouldn’t be living this life alone and we should be kind to one another. All of us are fighting our own set of battles, and maybe, even battles that remains unseen to many.
Love is not necessarily love within a relationship; though it is one of the many “loves” we know. Being able to share life with someone, how home is whenever and wherever you are together, sharing both the joys and the trials, someone who is able to hold you firmly and keep you above the waters despite the utter darkness you may feel within you.
Love also exists in our friendships, among family members, colleagues, comrades, our pets. We want to make sure that our family is well-taken care of, our dogs are fed, our colleagues are not sick, our friends are being treated well in their relationships, being present, being able to be someone’s shoulder to cry on — we care because we love.
Love can also be found in something that you are passionate for. Doctors who are committed to saving lives. Musicians who dare to be vulnerable in the hopes that their work is able to comfort their audience. Volunteers who dedicate their lives to help others. Teachers who are passionate about educating and moulding our next generation into fine young people. Advocates pushing for causes such as climate change or mental health, fighting for the better future of our world.
Love comes in many forms, but what does loving yourself really mean?
Loving yourself is not necessarily made up of the occasional scented bubble bath, glass of wine, and scattered rose petals (though, totally do that in your free time if that relaxes you!). Loving yourself isn’t just about treating yourself to a nice meal, or a shopping spree, or a cup of coffee and a good book.
Loving yourself is the process of learning to understand who you are — discovering what can be embraced and what can be changed. It’s a healing process — it’s painful, it’s not pretty, and it’s not the most easiest of things to go through. Sometimes, there is so much existing self-doubt and self-deprecation that it feels suffocating to sift through it all. You will wonder if you were ever good enough, and question what in the world would someone ever see in you. But you will learn to figure out what makes you happy, what your goals are, what your purpose is. You will learn to understand that you are important — it’s okay to put yourself first sometimes, you are not selfish for doing so.
Loving yourself… looks different on everyone. Loving yourself as a whole, involves the need to forgive yourself. But before we are able to forgive ourselves, we must first muster the bravery to be able to confront our thoughts head on.
Loving yourself takes courage, forgiveness — and a whole lot of patience. But let us link our hands together and continue walking towards our journey of finding out what it really means for us to love ourselves.
So, what does loving yourself mean to you? Feel free to share your thoughts!
What Does It Mean will be a series where I choose a random topic, share my views about the matter, and where I also hope to be able to get your insight and interact more with all of you who may be reading my work!
