I think that it’s a phrase we hear a lot. You know, the age-old “be yourself” or maybe the classic “you’re perfect just the way you are.” While I think that it’s a good thing that we, as people, build each other up with such wonderful words of kindness, I think that, sometimes, we simply hear these phrases too much. I think that, sometimes, the lovely words of encouragement lose their meaning because people hear them so often that they don’t really believe they’re true.
When someone tells me that it’s alright for me to be myself or tells me that I’m perfect just the way I am, I listen. I hear the words. I take them in, but I don’t really process them the way I should. I know what they mean, and I know the sentiment behind them, but it is all too easy for me to let their significance fly right over my head.
We can’t do that.
These words hold a lot of truth, and I mean a lot. There is so much truth in telling people that they are beautiful just the way they are, and there is so much sweet joy in telling people to be themselves. Saying these phrases doesn’t just show us that someone cares enough to say it, but that someone sees us as beautiful on both the inside and the outside. Telling people that they should be themselves isn’t said to degrade them or knock them down for being whoever they are, but rather, to tell them that who they really are, inside, is simply amazing.
It is to say that we should want to be ourselves because we really are beautiful just the way we are. Who we are is amazing. We are beautiful and wonderful and loved. We’re all different, and we all have unique perspectives and outlooks on life to bring to the table, and we should do that. If we can be ourselves, then everyone around us will see the beautiful human beings that we are.
If you’re feeling down or lost about who you are, know that you can be yourself. You are perfect, and you are who you’re meant to be. You’re beautiful just the way you are, and when people try to tell you that, it’s okay to listen. More than that, it’s okay to process those words, really take the words to heart. When people tell you that you’re perfect just the way you are, and when they tell you to be yourself, they are coming from a place of love. It’s time that we accept that love as factual, and it’s time to begin to process just how great those words are.
We are perfect just the way we are. We are beautiful when we’re just being ourselves. It’s time we believe that.