UNS — To support its mission in creating a positive impact through speech and discussion, Universitas Sebelas Maret (UNS) Surakarta TEDx held a discussion on self-love through the My Journey to Self-Love webinar. The event was held online through the Google Meet application opened with TedxTalks video “My Journey to Self-Love” by dr. Andrea Pennington, a multi-talented physician who applies a holistic approach in her practice.
Dr. Andrea Pennington is also the founder and president of Pennington Empowerment Media. In the video, she shared her journey through depression and her experiences meeting other people’s expectations. She concluded, later in life, that she has a right to be happy, to be loved, to feel glad over her life choices, and she can achieve that by accepting herself, accepting he drawbacks, strengths, and love herself.
The event was followed by a discussion with Elang Jordan, Faculty of Medical Science (FK) UNS young physician, and Alim Adi Sasono, the chief of Psychology Student Association UNS 2019. Alim shared the definition of self-love as a condition of someone who accepts what they have, loves themselves, not only all the drawbacks but all the strengths. “Even though we are different from other people, we need to accept our drawbacks and strength, which we often neglected,” he said in the webinar on Saturday (3/4/2021).
Elang followed the explanation with his personal experience on self-love based on ‘How to Respect Myself’ book from Dr. Yuk Kong Yun. The book explains that self-acceptance starts from accepting all drawbacks and strengths, and insecure people often focus on their weaknesses and close their eyes over their uniqueness. Elang said that in his junior years, he was insecure and felt not ready. Slowly, he came to terms that every person has their strength and needs to learn how to accept critics. A critic made him fall and disturb his other activities, but he realized that those times are a process to find self-love, accepting the past as a part of fate which shapes a person into a unique individual.
Alim emphasized that nobody will meet everyone’s expectations, not even their expectation of themselves. He encouraged the participants to do what they can, listen to others as an evaluation, but admit that there are people better than us. Elang invited the participants to love themselves. “Self-love is self-care, so give yourself love and take care of yourself,” Elang said. He added that self-love is how someone takes care of themselves, fixes themselves, and keeps themselves from adverse impacts. “So, love yourself, take care of yourself, because we deserve to be loved,” he reminded. The event continued warmly, followed by a questions and answers session and photo session. Humas UNS
Reporter: Zalfaa Azalia Pursita
Editor: Dwi Hastuti