Kyunki Tum Hi Ho
Ab Tum Hi Ho
Zindagi Ab Tum Hi Ho from Aashiqui in 2013

or

Dil Deewana bin sajna ke maane na from Maine par kiya decades ago

Image courtesy – Google

Or any love song that we pick be it in the yesteryears or today only emphasizes how we are all made for that one person, and there is no life without them! I grew up listening to them, dreaming about them and imbibing all that they said. Aren’t movies and songs a way of hypnotizing? It seeps into our unconscious minds and occupies the space without even our knowledge. Here we are thinking why do we feel like that, why did I assume that, why did I expect that? Well! Everything we watch and read and listen to becomes a part of us. Sigh!

Also, I grew up with the belief that self-love is narcissism and it’s important to think of everyone else. If everyone around is happy, we will be satisfied. I do not remember who in particular taught me this, but this is what was told time and again. So then why will any one of us love ourselves? Isn’t that a heinous crime?

Well! No. I took years to learn this, but I want to scream this out loud today to all of you that loving one’s self is the best thing we can do for our well being. I certainly know now that until I “love” myself, I cannot love anyone else. If I don’t know what is love then how can I pass on that feeling, that compassion to anyone?

I watched a WhatsApp video by someone recently in which he beautifully explains that love is like a bank balance, you get what you deposit. I couldn’t agree more. In fact, we will always receive more than what we deposit, and it is called “interest” in the banking lingo 🙂

So are we waiting for that spouse to love us, our mother to talk to us, an old friend to be kind to us how about keeping everything aside and enjoying our own company and making ourselves the hero/heroine of our movie called life? The love in us will overflow and reach everyone around. The light in us lightens up another person’s world.

How about loving ourselves and being happy by always remembering that only we are responsible for our own lives. Not parents, not spouses, not partners, not children, not friends, not anyone or anything. We are accountable, and if we do not love ourselves then my friend you know where the issue lies isn’t it?

I am not blaming movies or songs here, am a sucker for romantic films myself but wanted to create awareness about self-love. Because love begins with self.

May there be love in abundance always!
I felt the need to insert a disclaimer here; self-love is not self-obsession:). Let’s keep this topic for some other time.