Learning to Love Myself

This summer I read a book called “You Are a Badass” by Jen Sincero. Written in this book was some truly fantastic advice about how to create my desired life and how to improve my mindset. The most valuable piece of advice lay at the end of every single chapter, only two words, but a phrase that had a long-lasting effect: “Love Yourself”. After reading these two words for 27 chapters, they became so ingrained in my brain that I decided to give it a try and start loving myself, actively, purposely, genuinely.

For as long as I can remember, I have had a negative mindset when it came to observing myself. I constantly criticized things that I didn’t like or that weren’t “perfect”, and once I fixed one thing, I would automatically find another about myself that I hated and needed to fix. This vicious cycle and my constant self-criticism obviously resulted in a miserable mood and nonexistent confidence; I was tired of it. While reading this book, I started focusing on the qualities that I really liked about myself, anything that made me feel proud to be the person I am. Furthermore, I stopped letting other people’s potential opinions prevent me from doing things that I wanted to do. I used to be so worried about what others would think of me, my actions, my interests, but I realized it’s MY life and I should do what makes ME happy. At the end of the day nobody else’s opinion matters.

Now, I work on saying at least one positive thing about myself daily. Whether that is an intellectual or physical quality, I affirm my self-love every chance I get and I have noticed a significant, positive effect. I am much more confident and happier than I have been in a long time. Also, every night I like to write down three good things that happened that day, which I have found help me notice the beauty that each day brings. I feel that I am a more positive and care-free person and I am very grateful for this book.

It’s so easy to fall into a pattern of constant criticism because hating yourself is so easy while loving yourself takes more work and attention. I definitely still have my bad days, but I’m proud that I took things into my own hands and worked on loving myself. I am worth it and so are you.

I hope that this article helps you with your journey to self-love! You can buy the book here. Stay safe!