Blessings to all,

First and foremost I want to say “Shout out to aladalove.com for this great outlet and the opportunity to be a part of something as major as such."

Lada: What is self love to you?

Trey: Self-love to me is about being in tune with your inner pulchritude. Understanding your value as a human being and accepting how Gods paint brush designed you to be.

Lada: How’d you come to love yourself? What barriers did you face?

Trey: Well it actually came from observation. Being around certain people who were less fortunate and had no one to be in their lives to tell them “hey. I love you”. Seeing and being around persons as such, it made me appreciate the support and love I had from others. Being thankful for who I am. That I'm me and nobody else. That’s what brought me to love myself. There definitely was a time in my life where it was hard to... continue to love myself. I had got so caught up in the streets that I became someone else. No alter ego or anything, more like I didn't care if I lived or died, got killed, etc. I lost (at that time) sense of my self-value. On top of that, I’ve never really been the type to express my feelings. I started to believe that I had no one to turn to when I did. God is always available. Yesterday, tomorrow and forever. True story.

Lada: What are some issues people who are incarcerated face with self-love and acceptance?

Trey: Well for one, a lot of guys come across in the prison system and didn’t have any outside support and believed in no higher power. That makes it more challenging to love and accept one’s self when you don’t have an outlet to stem that love from. Also, relationships, when things go wrong in relationships, the victim of the wrong doing tends to question their own identity. “Am I not good enough?” Maybe love is not for me. That can really alter one image of self-love and acceptance. it tough.

Lada: were you taught self-love in your childhood?

Trey: Not directly. It was basically “treat others how you want to be treated” type of stuff.

Lada: As a black male and as someone who is physically imprisoned, write about hardships and how self-love can be difficult. Can it be obtained?

Trey: Hardships are a part of life. Physically imprisoned or not. But when you are in prison and life punches are thrown your way. Its like its intensified by 10 because whatever the trials are, you have to carry them back to a cell at the end of the day. With so much idle time, your mind seems to always focus on that situation. Not having the right outlet. Not only are you physically imprisoned, now you become mentally imprisoned. That affects your effort to achieve self love and that is definitely difficult. Everything becomes an enigma. Physical, spiritual, emotional, etc. it can be obtained of course. I believe it all goes back to that outlet. I spoke about it earlier in the interview but we black men need to understand that no matter what self achieved and accomplished in life, we cannot do everything on our own will power. I feel like everyone needs something or someone to help us along our journeys. Especially when it comes to obtaining self love.

Lada: What advice do you have for people who struggle to love themselves?

Trey: Always remember that somebody loves you but God loves you more. That should be more than enough to love yourself and see yourself as God does. In his image.

Lada: often times, we look for other people to validate our existence and self-worth. How hard or easy is it for someone who is incarcerated to practice self-love or love in general?

Trey: I think it depends on what type of person is. At the same time, being in this type of environment, you don’t want guys to see what you feel as struggling with love and or self love. I feel when you burry something for so long 9feelings or whatever type), it’s hard to change that. Especially if you don’t recognize that there is an issue in that department.

Lada: What advice do you have for imprisoned men?

Trey: stay strong, never give up and learn all you can. Keep your head up cause there are better days coming in front of us.

Lada: Imprisoned women?

Trey: Same thing as the men.

Lada: What do you to practice self love?

Trey: Read the book of Hebrews and various other chapters in the bible on self love.

Alada: Any quotes, sayings, etc. that motivates you to continue to love yourself?

Trey: family and those consider familia.

Lada: while sending interviews to my brother, Trey heard about it and asked my brother ifhe could contribute to the website which I happily obliged. Thank you so much Trey for your contribution, it is greatly appreciated!