I’ve spent a lot of years watching people claim to love themselves and how they’re finally feeling happy after so much time wallowing in self-hatred and such. After reading Instagram captions and watching Youtube videos of people sharing that they’re able to feel this way, I was always left wondering how. How were they able to truly (and I mean, TRULY) say with confidence that they love themselves? I wanted to feel like that too.
Don’t get me wrong, I can say that I am generally content with life, but I was never the one to be able to say those three words: “I love myself!” That’s a pretty tough thing to come to terms with. While I’m only 20-years-old, I want to live life to the fullest and I want to stop living in a self-defeating manner. I think this journey is different for every person on this Earth, and that’s something that I am still working on accepting. So, just because someone has found their own sense of self love at 17 doesn’t mean you or I am behind in any way. The journey to self-love is a learning process.
To me, self-love is being able to make mistakes without beating yourself up, learning to laugh at and embrace embarrassing moments, taking care of yourself (mentally, physically, and emotionally), and just treating yourself with tenderness and kindness, just as you would anyone else. I think self-love is also about your mindset. It’s so easy to be hateful to yourself when your mind is swarmed with negative thoughts. If you wouldn’t say any of those things to a good friend or your mom, why on Earth would you say it to yourself? Change those negative thoughts into positive ones. Instead of looking in the mirror and immediately seeing things you don’t like, try listing things you DO like. I guarantee your vibes will be much better than they would be if you continued picking yourself apart. One day we’ll all be able to say we love ourselves with confidence if we haven’t already! It’s what we deserve. Self-love is a personal journey, and no one can take that away from you.
HCXO,
Brianna Perry
*Photo courtesy of giphy.com