I love myself today. Not like yesterday. I am cool. I am calm. I am going to be okay. This was a chorus from a popular grunge song of the 1990’s.

Later, one ostentatious singer cries out in the new millennium, "I am beautiful no matter what they say/ Words can’t bring me down/ I am beautiful in every single way/ Yes, words can’t bring me down/ So don’t you bring me down today" Christina Aguilera during her "wild" years.

These are words that have been echoed from one singer to another. It has been taught to us from our mothers, fathers, grandparents and siblings. Teachers, counsellors and even the coach of the local basketball team had made a metaphor or two about it. These words are said in private, screamed to the world or even written on a scrap piece of paper. I am talking about love.

How love transcends body image, perception of ideals in our culture and even how it is communicated. A text message from my Caucasian boyfriend that reads "I <3 U" is just as effective as me, a Gitxsan boyfriend telling him in my language, "Wii oo’y nii’n". He may not understand at first, but once I tell him what it means, he will (well, theoretically should) understand the message I am telling him.

The two singers I mentioned earlier noted that it is empowering to love oneself. I have shown how two people can love each other. In many ways, both are obviously different; yet it is the meaning behind the mutual love for each other that brings forth my point.

To love someone else, you must love yourself. I know it is easy to believe the dog (or cat) loves you but that is because they need you to survive. I mean really, if I were a cat, my boyfriend would throw me out the door so fast if I ever ruined one of his favourite shirts! As a human, he would just glare at me and decide to never let me in the closet.

Back to the point: Love. It is but the glue that holds social interactions together. We love our friends as friends, we love our teachers as teachers and we love our celebrities like stalkers would love them (and that is a scary love!). If we love ourselves, in theory we should have an idea as to how to love someone else. As with every other deep subject, this is a basic dummy’s guide to how to love someone and yourself:

1. Say "I love you" to a mirror, a cat so and so forth.

2. Hug yourself, your cat or someone you know vaguely.

3. Smile like you mean it! (It’s easy, just fake it!)

4. Listen to "You are my Sunshine" on repeat until you break into a musical number with jazz hands!

5. Remember that I love you as a reader too.