Describe what self love is, to you.

To me self love is the ability to embrace and appreciate all your flaws, imperfections, all the amazing things about you, and even the bad parts about you unapologetically.

What are some ways you practice self love?

First and foremost, I start of by trying to maintain a healthy relationship with God. I didn’t know what it meant to love myself until I first loved him. I also like to treat myself to something special like getting my feet done and going shopping. Lastly, I make sure I spend some quality time with myself. I could just sit at home or I decide to go out and see what the city has to offer, either way I do it alone or I’ve learned how to enjoy my own company. I’m lit.

Is there any hardships you've faced while loving yourself?

Yes of course. Self love was never easy for me. I’ve been on this earth for 2 and a half decades and I am now finally understanding the concept of fearlessly loving myself flaws and all. I always thought that if I fix all of these imperfections, loss weight, get prettier, etc., then I’ll be worthy of love. I realize that’s its ok to love who I am now, while working on who I want to be.

Describe a turning point in your life that helped to shape your ideals on self love.

Truthfully speaking, it took losing a relationship to change my views on self love. Once that relationship ended,I looked at myself in the mirror and was finally able to see me. It was like my vision had been blurred for so long because I focused on boldly loving the people around me and never myself. I finally saw how much I have neglected and devalued myself for the sake of other people. At that moment I realized the first person, besides God, who should have received the love I so freely gave out was me.

Is there anything about you (gender, religion, etc.) that inspires your view of self love?

Ultimately my faith is what keeps inspiring my views of self love. God’s love for me, for all of us, is absolutely unconditional. He loves our short comings, temperaments, talents, everything. And if God can love me as I am, then I can love me too.

Who are some people who have motivated you to love yourself? (negatively or positively)

Well, God of course and my mom. My mother showed the importance of valuing myself. From something as simple as keeping a clean apartment, to what I tolerate from people, to how I carry myself in public and in private, these all expression of self love that I need to practice daily.

What advice do you have for someone seeking to practice self love?

Falling in love with yourself can be such a beautiful thing when you let it happen. It’s ok to not have it all together. It’s ok to not even fully like what you see when you are looking at yourself. Nevertheless, you are still capable of loving yourself as the working progress you are and the beautiful master piece you will eventually become. Once you start to love yourself you’ll start to see that all those imperfections that you did not like about yourself before are actually important features that makes you uniquely designed and beautiful.

How can we, as a culture, promote self love and engage in its acceptance?

We must stop knocking down those who do know what it is to practice self love. We must acknowledge the fact that there is a huge difference between being cocky and being confidence. Self love is about showing self-confidence. It seems that in this day in age that is such a rare concept. The best way for us to promote self love is to continue to be blatant examples of self love.

LADA: I've known Moriah since our time at LMC and it has been great to witness her growth. She's selfless and a true role model. She encourages me to love myself and strive for dopeness. As she said, she's lit. Thank you so much Moriah!