I don't find radical self-love to be brave if you're a piece of shit; then it is cowardly, and an excuse not to try and better yourself.

I disagree. I think it is brave. We have to start somewhere. It's not about loving oneself as is, thinking we need no improvement, but about constantly assessing our motivations. WHY am I doing the WHAT? For example, the what might be 'being a piece of shit'. The 'why' is - where is that coming from? It's not an excuse not to better yourself, but to not measure your desire to achieve against what others say you should be, or what you aren't.

We are taught to measure success through the accumulation of material possessions, the power we wield over others, or the amount of followers we have on instagram.

I think we are saying the same thing about capitalism here. Surely if we don't accumulate, we're 'not good enough?'?

I think a measure of improvement, is being happier in spite of not having; being less of a piece of shit in spite of the bullshit you have to deal with daily.

Yeah, definitely.

As an example, do you think the rapist or the murderer is enough?

It's not about forgiving oneself, or about thinking we are 'good' just the way we are without the need for some serious work. It's definitely asking serious questions, such as why the rapist behaved so deplorably. Could it be that he didn't believe he was enough, that he was never loved, and that in order to establish a power he didn't have before, he took the power of another? I know that's simplifying things, but it would do society well to examine how we end up with murderers and rapists in the first place.

I totally hated the expression 'radical self love' until I began to unpack it a little more deeply. None of this is 'just' about simply loving oneself just the way one is, but refusing to apologise to others who might oppress you on the basis of who you are, for their own interests, and knowing one is certainly good enough to achieve what one is capable of as a loving, divine human being. And if you're a rapist or a murderer, you might have a longer way to go.

I think we are coming from the same place in many ways!

Thanks sooo much for engaging with the topic - it helped me clarify a little where I was coming from too and I appreciate your intelligent response!

!ENGAGE 50