If you're anything like me, you have trouble seeing in yourself what others say they see. You may have people that tell you that you're beautiful, amazing, and strong; but all you see is how you can't stack up to others. You think they must be lying to make you feel better.

You just aren't ready to love yourself.

To be honest, loving yourself is scary. You don't want to be "that person" who thinks they're better than they really are. You don't want to allow yourself to get to the point of loving yourself, because then when someone insults you or hurts you, it will hurt so much more when all that self-love comes crashing down.

What people don't realize is insecurity is often a defense mechanism from past trauma. You may be afraid of opening up to the possibility of some self-confidence because you'd rather be your worst critic than have someone else be.

Then, you stumble upon love and find someone that you may be slowly opening up to. You genuinely care about them more than yourself and you would do anything to make them happy. But there will be people who tell you that you can't love them if you don't love yourself.

I understand the sentiment behind this quote. Essentially, it's saying that if you can't take care of yourself; you can't take care of anyone else. People have this misconception that not loving yourself means you don't have the ability to love, but that's completely untrue. Love is unselfish, so many people dedicate themselves to taking care of others even when they don't care for themselves.

However, if you're someone who doesn't love yourself, it should be your first priority. While you don't need to love yourself to be in love with someone else, you won't be able to experience that love the same way that you would if you did love yourself.

You won't know what it feels like to love someone as your equal rather than feeling like you're inferior to them.

You won't know what it feels like to be in a relationship with someone without thinking in the back of your head that they deserve better.

When you learn to love yourself, you'll realize that you are just as good as others; just in different ways. You'll see the beauties and talents in yourself that others don't have, and you won't feel envious of the talents and beauties someone else has that you don't.

When you learn to love yourself, you'll realize that you can still be a self-critic, just in a healthy and productive way. You'll learn to ask yourself how you can improve rather than telling yourself that you're doomed to fail.

When you learn to love yourself, harsh words from others won't bring you down like they do when you're insecure. You'll be strong enough to look past them.

And when you love yourself, you'll be able to enjoy your love for others more.