These 3 words can make such an impact when uttered. But I honestly feel that they are simply overrated. How can you say that you love someone you just met? To me, the only people whom I could utter these words to with full sincerity are to my parents, closest family members and to my best friends. Love is subjective, I agree and I am no one to question this. It just gets to me quite a bit when these words are used so easily. Well, maybe my perspective is too pessimistic but I for one believe that one must mean every word being uttered. Don't say things for the sake of saying them.
Anyway, with that being said, I feel that these same three words have such a profound effect on an individual's self-esteem. To feel that no one loves you and that you don't deserve to be loved can be very demotivating and depressing. And, these 3 words are definitely to be blamed as the society's perception of love has become so distorted that this feeling has become a common one. It's about time I change my attitude towards how these 3 words are going to affect me.
I guess that it has got to start from asking myself- 'So what if everyone doesn't love me? After all, those who matter to me isn't everyone. Allah and my parents love me'. It's also important for me to start loving myself. In Islam, we have been thought to love Allah above everything else in this world. I have this sudden awakening that in order to fall in love with Allah, you have got to love yourself- the creation that you are closest to. By going through a journey of self-discovery, I guess that one will learn to love himself/ herself which will eventually lead to loving Allah s.w.t- the Creator.
Also, a lot of us are too busy searching for love elsewhere and waiting for those 3 words to be 'sincerely' uttered to us. That's when we end up going through heartbreaks and disappointments because after all, those who will unconditionally love us are none other than our parents and our Creator. So why not make a change? Don't let these 3 words affect you. Change those words to 'I Love ME' and utter it to yourself daily. The hardest thing to do is again, to believe the words that you are telling to yourself. To do that requires a process - to make yourself worthy of your own love and I guess that it comes back to your definition and perspective about love.
To me, this process of loving oneself falls back to Islam, the ultimate way of life- according to the Sunnah of Rasulullah. It's definitely not easy but it ain't impossible to exemplify Rasulullah's way of life. Change takes time and it requires persistence. Having that sheer determination and persistence to change one's lifestyle itself will help one to fall in love with themselves. I haven't tried it but I guess that 'Life begins with realization' and I'm glad that I have realized that I have to stop allowing the distorted view of love to affect me.
Let's stop chasing everyone's love and start loving ourselves. Let's wake up everyday with a smile and utter to ourselves, 'I love ME'.
