I'm tired of people telling me that I need to love myself. They act like it's easy. Like loving myself is something that's been programmed into my brain since birth, and that I just need to dig it out. Like, I'm just asking for attention, because I can't just LOVE myself. But every day there's something new that tears down the idea of love, as soon as it begins. It's easy for you to tell me what you want me to hear.

It's easy for you to see the good because you haven't been around for all the bad. At times, I see a hint of confidence where my inner lion is roaring and holding her head high, ready to strike any prey that crosses her path. But she seems harder and harder to find these days. It's like she's gone on a permanent vacation, and even though I keep calling her, she's doesn't want to pick up. On good days, I wake up, look in the mirror, and I do like the person that I see. But as my day goes on, one bad look or comment erases all of the good that I could possibly think about myself.

I could name 15 things I like about myself, and you could list one thing that you don't like, and all the things I said don't matter anymore. Self-care really is the best care. But it's very hard to love yourself when you live in a society that tells you everything about you is ugly and incorrect. I'm not "asking for attention", or "being dramatic", because there are things l don't like about myself. Everyone has things they want to change, and for me, sometimes it's everything.

All I can say is that having low self-esteem, or learning to love yourself after traumatic events in your life, isn't your job to patch up. It is not your job to try to force someone to love themselves, and for what it's worth, that will never work. Everyone has to work through their own personal struggles, and you telling me a compliment here and there, or aggressively trying to make me love myself, isn't going to change that. So before you tell me to "just stop it, and love myself", or to "stop acting the way I do", or to "stop being so self-centered", why don't you focus on yourself because it seems like you need to as well.