"Empowerment"?

Empowerment photo? Someone posted it as one. 

Everywhere I turn it seems I see the word empowerment. It is tied to food, women, health, and on and on.  It struck me today that I really have only a very vague idea of its meaning. Is there any substance to the concept of “empowerment” or is it just a marketing gimmick.    I looked it up in Webster’s which provides a meaning, “to give power to someone”. So are we giving power to ourselves or is someone else giving it to us?   My vague understanding is that much of the “empowerment” information in terms of women’s issues is about giving power to ourselves or at least not letting others take away our power.

When I use the word “power” I specifically mean we have the power to change our lives by changing our own behavior and attitude in any given situation and at any given period of time in our lives. First we have to recognize what our attitude is and that may be the hardest part. Our attitudes and behaviors are so ingrained in us they can be very, very difficult to recognize.  Once we know, recognize and understand our attitude and/or our behavior we can work to change it. I’m not saying changing it is easy but at least we have a target.

By giving you my thoughts am I “empowering” you to change your life by changing your attitude and behavior?  My curiosity is peaked and I will be looking into the meaning of “empowerment” more in the coming weeks. I will also be exploring self-love more. (I tend to jump around subjects a bit.  I apologize). 

What empowers us?  What does it mean to be empowered? Do we need to be empowered? Who empowers us?  I always seem to have more questions than answers!

What is love?

It seems before we can explore the idea of "self-love" we need to explore the concept of love in general. That makes sense. 

Is love an art just like living is an art?  If it is an art it requires knowledge and effort.  Or is love just a pleasant sensation? 

According to Erich Fromm in his book, "The Art of Loving”, love is an art which requires mastery of the theory and mastery of the practice just like any art such as music, medicine, etc.

Today is short and sweet but something that needs some serious pondering?  How do you see "love"? Do you treat it as an art or as a pleasant sensation?

Back to self-love

I just remembered that a few weeks ago I said I was going to explore the concept of "self-love" that we hear so much about.  Some suggest that it is the foundation for a meaningful and happy life.  So what exactly is it?  Do I have it?  If I don't have it how do I cultivate it?  Do I really care if I "have" it?  As usual there seem to be more questions that answers but we have to start someone on this journey.

Here is what wikipedia says about self-love.

Self-love is the love of oneself.

In 1956 psychologist and social philosopher Erich Fromm proposed that loving oneself is different from being arrogant, conceited or egocentric.  He proposed that loving oneself means caring about oneself, taking responsibility for oneself, respecting oneself, and knowing oneself(e.g. being realistic and honest about one's strengths and weaknesses). He proposed, further, that in order to be able to truly love another person, a person needs first to love oneself in this way.


Well this is as good a place as any to start on my "quest".  I'm going to contemplate the definition and look into Erich Fromm's (seen below)  background a little bit.