What Self-Love Means to Me
Self-love is beautiful and I never truly grasped the meaning behind it until two years ago. This is because change was taking place in my life, which I was uncomfortable with. I didn’t love myself enough to believe that everything would be okay, and that I would overcome that phase. I wanted to really and truly love myself so I would be able to handle whatever came my way.
I have since worked on building my strengths and improving my weaknesses. Why? Because like many teenage girls, I, at the time, felt I wasn’t good enough. I compared myself to people constantly, to the point where I couldn’t recognise my own self-worth. This affected my self-confidence and self-esteem majorly. At the time, I didn’t know the term self-love but was determined to love who I was as a person. I’m happy to say that I’ve never loved myself more than I do now.
I’ve done a few things that have helped me on this journey to self-love and I’d like to share some of them.
Recognise that there’s no one exactly like you.
You are an individual, and every individual out there is different. You have different interests, hobbies, likes and dislikes as everybody else. This took me a while to comprehend because I was focusing on people who appeared to have everything together. I had to realise that their interests wouldn’t make me happy. Yes, they were strong in certain areas, but I was strong in others. We weren’t in competition.
Realise that each person is living their own life.
Every human being in this world is entitled to live how they want to, and what they do should not concern you. Again, I thought there was this ‘ideal’ way of living life and how other people lived (going out every weekend whilst I was indoors) was how life should be lived. It took me the longest time to accept this, and I still find myself believing this is the norm. So instead of scrolling through Instagram and checking what other people are doing, I focus on what I’m doing. This helps me overcome negative thoughts, feelings and love myself enough to stop comparing.
Realise that each moment is precious.
We all know someone who’s been saddened with news recently that has led to feelings of hurt and, at times, grief. Due to Covid-19, I’ve lost many family members which has made sad news become a regular thing. This has taught me that each moment, each day, is precious and should not be taken for granted. So, why waste so much time not loving who we are? We’ll only be spending the rest of our lives with ourselves.
Remember that no one is perfect.
In today’s society with social media, it may seem people are perfect, resulting in them loving themselves, but every person has strengths and weaknesses. No one is perfect. You are not perfect. I’m not perfect. This is something I’ve kept reminding myself over the years, and it’s made such a difference. I feel inner peace and, instead, work towards becoming a better version of myself every day.
Practice positive affirmations.
Sometimes we can be our worst enemies and tell ourselves things we wouldn’t want the people we care about to be told. So, why do we say these negative things to ourselves? Read that again. We need to be kinder to ourselves, and loving ourselves is how we can achieve this. Recently, I’ve been waking up every day, looking in the mirror and saying one nice thing to myself. This starts my day off positively and makes me feel good about myself. Please give it a try and see the difference in your day ☺
The journey to self-love doesn’t happen overnight. It’s one that takes time. So, start taking the steps now to love yourself wholeheartedly and completely.
I hope some of the things I’ve mentioned help you. And I hope you’re ready to enter this beautiful journey of self-love.
Love,
Adeeba x
