Hello February, I can now say that love is in the air. If you are in a relationship, I will assume that you are already preparing or at least have an idea of what to wear and are maybe as well planning a romantic dinner with your partner at home, because quarantine goes first. I am not here to give you advice or tips on what shade of red to use this year, or where you can find a playstation 5 at a good price. I’m here to tell you more about what matters this month…. LOVE. But what is love?
Urban dictionary’s top definition of love is doing anything for someone no matter what. Furthermore, being love is about giving it all and I would say love is unconditional. Whenever you seek to define love, we usually always have a “someone” to be included, whether it is a man or a woman who defines this word. It always has to be doing something for that person just because of how you feel for her or him. It is such a magical and powerful word. But I am not here to give you a lesson on what love is; the reason why I bring up the meaning of it, is because of MY definition of love.
That is right, today we are going to talk about me, myself and I. Pinky promise, I will not bore you, instead, I want to share my treasure with you. There are certain days when I wake up and see myself in the mirror and it is not the best experiece. But this this is normal because nobody has perfect skin every day of their life, nobody wakes up with their perfect hair, unless you are Bella Hadid (ugh hate her–Jk!). But to be honest, self-esteem goes beyond looking in the mirror and accepting the acne that I woke up with today. It is the way I value myself and the ability to recognize my potential, what I have to build my happiness, achieve my goals, and face any challenge along the way. It is a concept that includes self-knowledge, a strong self-concept, self-confidence, self-assertion, self-care, self-responsibility, self-realization, and all the self-jewels I opt to have every day. And this is my treasure: self-love.
Self-love is not only exercising, getting my nails done, or pampering myself. It goes way beyond all those superficial things. It is feeling confident in your own skin no matter what. But how can I be confident if I am not part of the Hadid’s? Giving you some advice can be easy, the hardest part is me following my own advice, when after this I will probably end up making a late night snack, but who cares? Us woman we torture ourselves with strict diets, long gym routines, and comparing ourselves with perfect instagram models. It is time to STOP doubting yourself! You are as perfect and pretty as any other model, any instagram doll, or anyone else. Here are three tips that will help you love yourself:
- Embrace your flaws
-
Know you are REAL. Acknowledge that you are not the only one with flaws. We all have a bunch of them, and it is time to embrace them.
- Be your own BAE
-
STOP feeling like you need a special someone to feel loved. This Valentines make some good dinner for yourself, eat a big bowl of pasta, go out with your girlfriends, and just LOVE life! Being yourself includes being beautiful, powerful, sexy, and strong and that’s real magic. That is way better than having someone. You are more than enough and that is the real meaning of love.
- Remind yourself how good you are
-
REMIND yourself how good you are and change those awful thoughts. Change saying to yourself “I can’t” and try saying “I’m going to try”, “I’m going to be successful” and “I’m going to do well” instead. It seems like a cliché, but forcing yourself a little to look at the good things in life can help us get out of the negative dynamic. If we realize that we have many things to value, it is easier for us to get out of the negative loop.
Believe me, once you start loving yourself, you will love being single, and Valentines will be your favorite day because it’s the perfect time and perfect day to show yourself LOVE. And for me, the best love is SELF-LOVE. One of my favorite things to do in my self-love journey is to think about what I want for my loved ones, what I would not like to happen to them, how I would like them to take care of themselves and to be able to take care of their health to have them around for many years. I then apply that to myself. When you discover yourself idealizing the lives of others or trying to convince yourself of how good it would be to not be yourself, remember that we all have something good to contribute and it is up to us to find and enhance our gifts. It gives us the opportunity to help or motivate others. With that being said, Happy Self-Love Month!