Hi Roman
My feeling is to use “I” you are after all talking to yourself. The fact that you feel better about using a third person suggests to me that your statement might be a “step too far” for your subconscious to accept. Break down that “love” into some smaller components, your better qualities. Write several statements and run them one after another. Another thing might be to climb down from the absolute positive to “I could begin to love myself”.
Peter