Loving yourself is like having a garden. Each flower planted in the soil represents all the love you are getting and giving other people and yourself. When you don't love a part of yourself a weed grows. If not taken care of, the weed will absorb all the nutrition from the other flowers. Soon enough, weeds, similar to self-hatred, expand, fueling themselves with more of the nutrition that could be given to the growing, beautiful flowers. And, as expected, this leads to the flowers' deaths. In failing to love yourself, the beauty around you dies.
For a long time I was confused about loving yourself. I thought it was selfish. Loving yourself? How prideful. Oh how utterly wrong young Rebecca was. You see, in loving yourself you doing the exact opposite of being selfish. Loving yourself enables you to take yourself out of the situation, meaning you are not looking to get love from someone else. When you stop looking for something in return, love, you stop being disappointed and start seeing more blessings. After stumbling upon this realization, I have found myself to be much more thankful for those around me because I'm not disappointed when someone can't give me the love I should have been giving myself. Occasionally I will pause and reflect on how absolutely blessed I am. And in these moments I feel the sort of fullness and joy that many of us hope one day to find. Of course, though, nearly all good things are hard to accomplish. Some days are easier to love yourself than others. That's life though: good and bad days strung together making your life what it is. As someone who lived in self-hate for far too many years, trust me when I say this, the hardness of loving yourself daily is worth the joy and freedom you get from it. Whether you need to wake up every morning and whisper to yourself "It's okay to yourself. I deserve my own love", ask a friend to keep you accountable for loving yourself, or keep a blog and make a post about loving yourself, do it. Do it for yourself because you deserve to feel the fullness of something no one/thing can give you, your own love.
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AuthorLife enthusiast, tea addict, Winnie the Pooh admirer who is hopelessly pursuing happiness by any and all means. Archives
April 2020
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