Self-love definitely has the key role in revealing the meaning of life. This thought came to my mind in a conversation I had with a very dear friend of mine who showed me that tolerance, respect and accepting your own mistakes is directly connected to our self-image.
If I don’t love and accept the person I am, every fault, flaw and mistake will be a direct reflection of how I feel towards myself. These moments make us sad, aggressive or arrogant – i.e. they encourage the type of behavior that is a burden to us and our surrounding.
So… How will I find this love? How will I learn to love “me”?
To find the answer to these questions, I asked them to myself and tried to find out if I loved myself and in which way. I thought about my past and remembered the moments, experiences and people who influenced my perception of me. First I got acquainted with parental love which taught me that I am worthy of love. I think that I didn’t question my self-love during this time. After that there was puberty, which was everything but pleasant. Why? Because next to the other usual problems that come with this period, I had to wear braces and a corsetry and I thought I looked like Herman Monster. As you can see – I didn’t love myself at that time. I’ve always loved doing sport and I have good genes so I was rather satisfied with my body, which stopped me on my way to depression.
After this phase I fell in love for the first time. I started questioning everything because I wasn’t sure what I wanted from life and where to start at all. I’ve always had a lot of interests but I felt the real joy later on in dance and in organizing. I felt the true self-love when I decided to listen to my inner voice and open a dance school with Dado – our very own project filled with dance, creativity and continual excitement. I think I found something that allows me to express myself in the best possible manner. This project has given me an opportunity to create the kind of world around me that I really like. In that moment I let the masks fall and decided that I would do something that neither my parents, nor my friends liked. So I can say that I started feeling self-love when I opened my heart and listened to me rather than tried to fit in different social or family expectations.
It’s not that you need to make a job out of every hobby or passion that you have because you can have a job and earn enough money which you can use than to fulfill your own needs and wishes during your free time. Creating balance is probably the most important factor in this case.
I’ve noticed in the last couple of years that my self-love grows, precisely through salsa. Now when I think about this, I can say that I love myself because I love what I do, I love my life, I love the people who surround me and because I always try to be responsible for the decisions and mistakes I make, although that can sometimes be hard. I know that I still have mistakes and weaknesses that I have to improve… but I’ve noticed that I’ve gotten better in many things. Maybe this is a question similar to the one is the glass half-full or half-empty?
I often wonder what the meaning of life really is. But on the other hand, I love my life and my soul so much that this feeling gives me the answer to this question. We are all going to die at one point in time, but I think that it’s better to dance than to suffer your way through life… This gives me hope every day. I’m curious while meeting new people, I feel the connection to the others and I believe that dance, music and my profession, including the decision I made, make my life and the life of the people in my surrounding better…
A big Thanks to Martina Pranjic´ for the translation....
