Yes, somehow loving yourself first seems to our culture 'selfish' - where as I've found that without loving myself first, I'm not in good enough to shape to have much love for others!

The other thing is that I've found "love" to be easier said than done, what is love? I like the saying "Love is to Understand" as without understanding yourself or another person, how can we know how to love them properly.

So I think without practicing mindful living - increasing our awareness of body, mind and environment - we may have the intention to love but in reality we don't know how to do it! ;-)