Lizzo’s amazing embrace of self-love is an important message for all of us. As a black woman in
America, Lizzo’s realization that she had to find that spot of self-love to feel her self-worth is
indeed inspiring. In ushering such a profound concept into our social consciousness through her
song and speech, Lizzo plays the role of a prophet – one who preaches new concepts capable of
catapulting culture to new heights. While Lizzo’s message of self-love is so poignant for people
of color, it also resonates for all of humanity.
Confronted by the images of female beauty that did not resemble her, her size and her blackness, Lizzo’s journey of self-discovery led her to the self-love destination. Her message to us is reminiscent of the lessons to be learn from the Nobel-Prize-winning African American novelist, Toni Morrison. In the novel, Beloved, Morrison relates how a central female character, Baby Suggs sought to inspire those dehumanized by the racist abuses of slavery to embark on the journey to freedom and authentic personhood through self-love.
In this here place, we flesh; flesh that weeps, laughs; flesh that dances on bare feet in
grass. Love it …Yonder they do not love your flesh…. Love your hands! Raise them up
and kiss them… You got to love it…! … Flesh that needs to be loved. Feet that need to
rest and to dance; backs that need support; shoulders that need arms, strong arms I’m
telling you … love your neck; put a hand on it, grace it, stroke it and hold it up. And all
your inside parts … you got to love them. The dark, dark liver—love it … and the beat
and beating heart, love that too.
Lizzo’s call to self-love resonates so deeply with me. In Outside Eden’s Gate: The Secrets of
Self-Empowerment, I describe how my own journey of empowerment led me to the self-love
destination.
Self-love, with its restoration of a sense of self-worth, is our birthright. It is a birthright that may
have been denied so many of us by upbringing, by culture and religion, by racist bias, and more.
Yet, sensing self-worth, knowing I am enough, and feeling an innate lovability are indispensable
for achieving personal empowerment. However paradoxical it may seem; self-love is both the
reward of personal empowerment and the state of personal empowerment itself.
Discovering self-love and making it a persistent presence in our lives requires the changing of
habitual ways of thinking about ourselves. And, as we all know, habits can be changed. In The
Self-Empowerment GPS: Your Guide for Achieving Personal Greatness, you will find weekly exercises to help you develop new habits of thinking that will consolidate your sense of self-love.
Dare to be you! Dare to Love Yourself.