One of the hardest things in life is to learn how to love yourself. I use to hear people go on and on about loving yourself, your body, your life and your choices and I use to just think it was a load of lies and false information because how can anyone really genuinely love themselves?
How can anyone love themselves to the point where they are happy and don’t want to change anything about their life? I thought it was crazy. I didn’t start realising the importance of loving myself until I realised I didn’t love myself or love my life… I wasn’t truly happy.
You know when you wake up and your STILL tired? your fatigued, unhappy, frustrated and just not ready for the day? This use to be me! I was living each day in a motion that was on one level with a routine that didn’t make me happy.. I would do the same things, see the same people, go to the gym and I had no time for myself. I envied people that glowed right out of there skin, they had this Smile on there face that made me wonder why I couldn’t achieve this!?
I would scroll through Instagram and double tap on all of these photos that made me want to change myself and my appearance, I was never happy because I was always comparing myself to others… it was a never ending cycle until I don’t know..what.. or how.. but something huge clicked in my life. I started to understand that in order to make myself happy and learn how to love myself I had to change a lot about my mentality and overall lifestyle. But here I was already assuming I had a fine mentality?
I didn’t want to continue living a life that wasn’t allowing ME to GLOW right out of my skin, I didn’t want to waste time on thinking of ways to change myself so I would “fit in” and I certainly didn’t want to wonder “WHAT IF”. So here I am, explaining how I learnt to love myself.
- I was inspired by certain people, so incredibly inspired I craved to be happy like those around me and live a lifestyle that people somewhat looked up too, so I began to write down my goals. This way it allowed me to visually see what I wanted to achieve. I don’t do this as much now but in the beginning I stuck by it. We all have goals even if you don’t think you do.
- I started to understand that everyone is there OWN SELF. Everyone is so different and this is such a unique thing, despite looks, characteristics or even laughter. We are all one person as an individual. So why try to change yourself to be like someone if it’s never going to be achievable?
- I started to look in the mirror and began to eliminate all negative comments I thought about myself.. even though I still maybe thought these, at times I acknowledged what I was thinking and immediately pushed away the negative thoughts to the back of my head and went on about my day.. I didn’t dwell on what I saw in the mirror and I certainly didn’t let it be my focus for the day. Of course this took time and practice but it was worth the continual effort to Change my negative thoughts into positive. Instead of saying I hate my legs, start being thankful I had strong enough legs to run, dance and live each day. Don’t get me wrong I use to let negativity affect me immensely but now I know how unimportant it is & how much it can affect you mentally and socially. It’s not worth it.
- Another huge step in learning to love yourself is consistency. Consistency in positive thinking, consistency in producing positive thoughts about yourself, consistency in your everyday life that makes you genuinely happy. With consistency you are able to love yourself because you are continually stepping in the right directions in order to live a life full of love, happiness and contentment.
- I learnt that resting is important, spending time with yourself is vital and doing little things that you love is one of the only ways you can truly be with yourself. The more time I started to spend with myself the easier it was to accept me, Because I wasn’t always around people, my mind mindlessly stopped comparing myself to those around me. I started to work on myself more and simply became more grateful for who I am. Try yoga, medication, cooking, going for a walk, listening to music, writing a blog. All these things help me to be with myself and be grateful for the little things, I use to hate being by myself but now I love it ā¤ļøš
- I learnt to forgive myself. We are all human and all make simple mistakes. But if you push yourself into the ground and start punishing yourself for the little mistakes you make, then there is simply no room for growth. If we make a mistake, why don’t we just accept it and move on?Ā or better yet start making changes and implementing strategies that will help solve this issue. We always seem to make things a bigger problem then they are. We should embrace who we are and continue to move forward no matter what barriers are in our way.
- Learning to be uncomfortable to the be comfortable is something that I live by. We can’t all live in our comfort zone. Being uncomfortable is one thing that made me focus on myself and made me think why I even felt uncomfortable in the first place. Maybe you were unsure of what was about to happen? Or maybe you didn’t like the way you dressed. Either way… push past that feeling and act confident. Because if you act confident no one will know otherwise.
- Being honest not only to yourself but to everyone around you, will be a huge factor in your happiness. Not being truly honest can lead to guilt, negative feelings, confusion, frustration, anxiety, peer pressure, unsettled days and hate. There is no reason why we should lie to ourselves. Speaking from experience I have put alot aside and I have procrastinated highly because I’ve been nervous and simply scared of the truth. But the things that are making us scared is a thing called “LIFE”. If you feel like it’s a hard thing to be honest to yourself then speak to someone that will help shift the way you think. Wether it’s your bestfriend, mum, a mentor or even a psychologist. We shouldn’t wish for something else and we shouldn’t be nervous to be honest. You control your life and you can depict the way you want to take on the day. It’s no ones choice except yours.
- I could go on forever but my last point for this post is to STOP trying to change yourself. We live in a society that feels the need to constantly make us feel as if we need to change ourselves to better ourselves. You can be happy with who you are.. I was hesitant about this point until I meet one of my best friends a year ago. Someone who is genuinely happy with herself and hardly ever speaks negative about her life.. she is so happy ALL THE TIME and doesn’t try to change who she is. She’s opened up my eyes and she has taught me that even though we are not perfect we should still love ourselves and our life.
Don’t try to change your life just go with it, and don’t be too serious. šš
Not everyday will be the greatest but there’s a lot more to life then worrying about it.
Love chlo ā¤ļø
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