Love Yourself First: The Awakening We All Need
By: Eric Paddy Boso
There are moments in life when you find yourself overwhelmed?not by what?s going on inside you, but by what others are doing outside of you. You ask yourself:
Why do people live the way they live?
Why do they treat others like that?
Why don?t they think the way I do?
And without realizing it, you begin to see the world through a purely human lens ? narrow, fragile, and often broken. This perspective will always leave you stuck. It drags you into confusion, emotional fatigue, and even self-hate. You begin to carry burdens that were never yours, absorb pain that doesn?t belong to you, and prioritize people who wouldn?t even pause to notice your silent suffering.
You keep putting others first ? family, friends, lovers, colleagues ? hoping to be seen, heard, or loved in return. But here's the hard truth: most people worship money and material possessions over God and humanity. They can?t give you what they don?t have. Many don?t care for you the way you care for them. And often, the deepest betrayal doesn?t come from strangers ? it comes from the ones you called your own.
Sometimes, it?s safer to embrace an open enemy than to place blind trust in familiar faces. The pain of betrayal by someone you love cuts far deeper than any wound from an outsider. And still, we keep loving at the expense of ourselves.
But here?s where the shift must happen:
Stop Over-Expecting
In relationships and engagements, we often fall into the trap of over-expecting from others ? hoping they?ll see us, value us, and show up for us the way we show up for them. But in the end, we are the ones left disappointed, drained, and questioning our worth.
Stop expecting people to give you what they?ve never given themselves. Stop assuming that because you love deeply, others will do the same. Love is not the problem. The problem is giving it out without first giving it to yourself.
Break the Silence. Cut the Cords. Wake Up.
We live in a world vibrating at low frequencies ? where vanity, ego, greed, and superficial love rule. People see only in the material and human forms, so they treat others with the same shallowness. But you don?t have to live that way.
You can choose different.You can raise your vibration.You can see beyond what eyes can behold.You can drop the burdens never meant for you.You can put yourself first ? and not feel guilty for it.
Try Loving Yourself First
You?ve tried loving others. You?ve sacrificed, tolerated, carried weight, and stayed silent for peace. Now try something revolutionary:
Love yourself.
Apologize to yourself ? for every time you betrayed your own heart to make someone else comfortable.Apologize ? for dimming your light to make others feel bright.Apologize ? for breaking your own spirit just to help someone else feel whole.
And then: Begin again.
Love Yourself Boldly
Eat the best you can afford.
Take a break without explaining.
Laugh without needing a reason.
Take yourself out.
Dance. Pray. Breathe. Heal.
Make your soul happy.
Step out of the shadows of guilt, grief, and emotional slavery that came from putting everyone else before yourself. That is not love ? that is slow self-erasure.
Loving Yourself Is the Beginning of Real Love
This isn?t a call to stop loving others ? no.It?s a call to try love on yourself first.Because until you do, you?ll continue attracting people who reflect your neglect.If you don?t know how to honor yourself, you won?t know when someone is dishonoring you.
Loving yourself is not selfish ? it?s spiritual maturity.It?s the foundation for discernment.It?s the doorway to peace.It?s the fuel that allows you to love others from fullness, not emptiness.
Yes, it might sound strange. It might feel hard. But it is the truth. The earlier you embrace it, the sooner you?ll escape the cycles of emotional trauma, disappointment, and pain.
Stop trying to make others feel better while you are breaking inside. That?s not kindness ? that?s self-abandonment.
And finally ? stop expecting people to be who they?re not. That is the most dangerous lie we tell ourselves. It?s the deepest grave we dig for our joy.
So instead:
Love yourself.Genuinely. Radically. Fully.
Because only then can you begin to attract the life and love you truly deserve.