This is from my personal experience:

First, I want to mention that I have difficulty understanding and relating to "self" and "love" as individual parts of the phrase. I have recently started working on those two ideas individually - Who am I? What makes ME, me, and not someone else? What does love truly mean? What does love feel like for ME?

I'm still processing that, but I am learning and understanding more and more each day. So far, what I can say about "self love," for me, is that it represents a willingness, ability, and desire to look inward and apply many of the empathetic and kind feelings and "talk" that I can much more easily see in and share with others.

The key for me is applying and living my inherent values more often. MY values - not the values of others, especially those that we imposed on me by family members or society. Three of my "top" values are creativity, humor, and perspective. I find that I reach the closest idea of "self love" by following those three values as frequently as possible. This makes me feel "better about myself," and provides me with pathway to living a life that is meaningful to me.

Thanks for taking the time to read my post. Be well and flourish!