On the morning of July 19, 2025, AWiBers gathered at the AWiB for a reflective roundtable discussion on “A Journey to Self-love” facilitated by Mastewal Habtamu.

Mastewal opened the discussion by asking a question “Why did you make this session your priority to be present at this afternoon?”. As many reflected saying social gatherings or work, we made this choice from a deeper urge to prioritize ourselves and do what gives us the most satisfaction or growth. We also reflected that we usually compromise our selflove to put others before us and call it ይሉኝታ but is it worth it?

Self-love doesn’t have any comparison with others, doesn’t criticize or judge and it is never vengeful of others. Self-love is accepting yourself as you are in this moment with full honesty to yourself. When making decisions, selflove teaches us to put our physical, emotional and mental wellbeing first.

Practicing selflove is challenging even to comprehend let alone practice for many of us because we were never raised to trust our emotions. Understanding and accepting our emotions is an important component of self-love so Mastewal stressed “Listen to and Trust your emotions”

Major Takeaways

• It is important to understand our trauma and triggers to fully know and love ourselves. “I am not defined by my scars but my ability to persevere” Lemn Sisay
• Observing our thought and action patterns will give us clarity on what to improve and the choices to make by minimizing our unconscious decisions
• Counting our blessings regularly
• Practicing saying no when we need to. Saying yes while we want to say no will make us resentful not only of others but mainly ourselves
• Practicing silence – While we are in any place dedicate our 80% of the time fully focused on what we do but the 20% to listen to our body and emotions from within.

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