A mature attitude towards oneself

Abstract

In Catholic upbringing, we usually focus on teaching children and adolescents to love God and their neighbor. In doing so, however, we often neglect helping them relate to themselves with mature love as well. The Bible explains that only he who loves himself is able to love his neighbor (love your neighbor as yourself). The first mistake with regard to oneself is an attitude of hostility, demeaning oneself, neglecting one's own needs and one's own development. The second error is selfishness, that is, focusing on oneself, indulging in hedonism and living at the expense of one's neighbors. Neither somebody who humiliates themselves nor somebody who puts themselves at the center of the universe can be happy. To love oneself maturely is to relate to oneself with friendship and patience, to protect oneself from harm, but at the same time to make firm and tough demands on oneself, without which it is impossible to develop and overcome one's own weaknesses.

Article: M. Dziewiecki, Pokochaj samego siebie! O najtrudniejszej formie miłości, https://www.czasopismokatecheza.pl/artykul/pokochaj-samego-siebie