I just read an article in which the author beautifully articulates what self-love is and she explains the journey she experienced to find it.  I hope you enjoy!
Here are some highlights:

• “When I heard people talk about ‘loving themselves’, I felt angry. To me, it was only selfish women who abandoned their children who would say things like, ‘I have to love myself first!'”
• “I guess you could say I was an angry grown-up child, whose own parents blabbed on about ‘self-love’ while they neglected, abandoned and emotionally devastated their own children. Self love was a cop-out for selfish narcissism!”
• “I’d convinced myself that if I lost weight, renovated the kitchen, got a new engagement ring (we’d married young and didn’t have much money), and purchased the latest model mini-van, I’d surely find and maintain my happiness.  But it never happened.”
• “It was time I stopped chasing, racing, running, climbing and finally, looked within.  Do you know what I found? A wonderful, loving, kind, smart, scared, broken, misguided, ashamed, angry, desperate-for-love woman who’d been (just as Waylon Jennings sang it) ‘looking for love in all the wrong places’. It was time I learned how to love myself.”
• “Self love is about living in alignment with who you really are: A divine, special, holy child of God—pure, innocent, passionate, trusting, loving, forgiving, courageous, and fearless.”
• “Self love is not a noun . . . it’s a verb. It’s journey that never ends. It is a daily way of living, loving, speaking, eating, moving, giving and receiving.”