Michael B. Jordan On His Love Language & Learning The Power Of Self-Care

Micheal B. Jordan is a national treasure that should be protected at all costs. There is not a villain in the history of villaindom that has ever made being bad look so good and recently, the 32-year-old Black Panther actor opened up about his love languages and baby I'm on it like Rosetta Stone. In an intimate conversation with Alicia Keys for a series surrounding her new single, "Show Me Love", Michael shared that while he greatly appreciates acts of service, there are a number of ways to break through to this heartthrob's sweet spot.

While there are only five love languages, issa fact that these languages can be spoken in a number of dialects and for Michael, one of the most precious things a woman can give him is her time:

"I'm more or less acts of service, but it's a mixture. It's like acts of service, quality time and physical touch. Because I feel like acts of service and quality time kind of goes hand-in-hand. Because like, you know, with us always being so crazy busy and ripping and running, I consider my time very precious. So if I'm taking time out of like, just that hustle, that grind, I'm taking time from that to do something for somebody else, I consider that quality time and acts of service. So I feel like that's one, and then physical touch."

In the past, Michael has been transparent about his quest to become whole and ultimately find "the one," but like most of us, he's still trying to figure out what dating really means; one step on his journey has been redefining self-care and vulnerability in his own life:

"I put myself on hold. I think I put my self-love on hold because of the things that I want to accomplish. It was hard for me to do both. And right now it's like, 'alright let's do this one first and then then I'll get to me later'. You know, saying like 'I'm good, I'm fine, I'm working, I'm grinding and I'm trying to set up these things; I'm trying to take care of the people I care about and take care of the people that I do love. It was hard for me to like be able to give myself fully to and be open enough to find love and have love and still feel like I was working as hard as I need to work and I haven't found a way to blend the two yet that's what I'm searching for."

There are some people raised on love and some people raised on survival, and as Black women, we tend to fall in love with the latter. This isn't a dig at anyone's parenting style or dating choices, but it goes without saying that how people are raised creates the mold for the way that they give and receive love, and Michael says that this was especially true for him in his childhood:

"Self-love is something that I never really thought about. I think we're so used to sacrificing things in our life. Watching my mom, watching my dad, they sacrificed so much for the kids for their family for the betterment of the tribe. So that was my example. Sacrifice. So I think the notion of like you know the self-love, taking care of yourself is something that I had to learn that I'm still learning."

While Michael is slowly but surely learning that love doesn't necessarily equate to material assets, there are times when he has to press pause on the grind for the sake of his own mental health because, without that, there is no hustle.

"I'm in the process of learning because we're so used to like you know running ourselves into the ground working through three jobs. You know borrowing, making things work, trying to make it make ends meet. Those are the examples; that's where we come from. I do need to feed my soul. I do need to love myself because if this falls apart, say this crumbles from the inside-out. How can I help the people that I care about? How can I help the people that I love?"

To watch the full clip, click below!

Michael B. Jordan (Show Me Love - Love Interviews - Part 2)www.youtube.com

Featured image by Andrea Raffin / Shutterstock.com

Originally published on October 24, 2019.