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# From Self-Love to the Source of Love
- URL: https://www.karuna.ink/from-self-love-to-the-source-of-love/
- Published: 2026-10-21T07:59:38.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-21T07:59:38.000Z
- Author: Karuna
- Tags: ARTICLES

**“Love yourself first” is familiar advice. But what does it ask of someone who can no longer recognise the person they used to be?**

Illness, loss and trauma can unsettle much of what once made us feel secure in ourselves. The work we were proud of, the independence we relied on, the future we expected—none is guaranteed. When these things change, does our worth change with them?

Learning to treat ourselves with kindness matters. Yet there is something troubling about making love another task we must accomplish alone. We learn to trust through being met with trustworthiness. We discover that our needs matter when someone takes them seriously. Even the way we speak to ourselves carries traces of the voices we have known.

Why, then, do we so often imagine maturity as the point at which we no longer need anyone?

This illustrated essay examines what self-love can offer, and where it may leave us searching for a firmer foundation. Drawing on psychology, philosophy and spiritual traditions, it explores dignity, responsibility and the possibility of a life less preoccupied with proving our own worth. Bhakti brings a further question into view: what changes when we understand love as a relationship with its source, rather than something we must continually generate within ourselves?

There are times when we cannot feel affection for ourselves. We can still eat, rest, accept help, keep a promise or repair something we have damaged. Such acts need not wait until we feel worthy of them.

What might become possible if our worth were no longer something we had to establish each morning?

**Read the full illustrated essay below.**

[Self\_Love\_WebSelf\_Love\_Web.pdf3 MBdownload-circle](https://www.karuna.ink/content/files/2026/10/Self%5FLove%5FWeb.pdf "Download")