Hello lovely humans! I hope you all have had a wonderful new year! I’m glad to say that mine has been going pretty well! I want to take a few moments of your time to let you in on one of the new year’s resolutions I’ve been working on. Recently, I’ve been left heart broken by the last couple of relationships I was in. While they were both equally heart breaking, both guys showed me parts of myself that I never knew existed.
For example, I realized that I don’t need a partner to be happy with myself. Yes, having a partner is a nice luxury, but it takes time. Not only that, but the saying ‘you need to love yourself before you love someone else’ is true. This year I plan on learning to love myself more and appreciate the body I’ve been given.
Everyone needs to learn how to love themselves. I know, it’s easier said than done, but that’s why the sooner you start the easier it gets. Self-love is not narcissistic or annoying, and you certainly have no reason to feel bad for doing so. In one of my classes this semester, we read a section of The Body Is Not an Apology: The Power of Radical Self-Love by Sonya Renee Taylor. In her book, she discusses how radical self-love isn’t something to be ashamed of. If anything, we should be proud of who we are and how we look.
Early on, Taylor says, “We didn’t give it to ourselves, and we are not obligated to keep it we arrived on this planet as LOVE” (7). In this quote, she is talking about how we are born loving ourselves and our bodies for what they are. We are not born to not love ourselves, were conditioned into it due to what we see and what we are told what’s best.
In 2020, it’s time for self-love and self-appreciation to truly run wild and not be looked down on. I strongly suggest if you are having trouble with accepting who you are, take a look at Taylor’s book. On that note, be proud of who you are and start to get to know yourself before knowing someone else.