Love yourself. It's a message that is circulated across all kinds of media campaigns. It seems as if every celebrity and brand is now endorsing self-love; which, just for the record, is great. In a world where companies thrive off of our insecurities, it is refreshing to see such a trend. We all are being taught how appreciating ourselves - our whole selves - opens up our hearts and minds to create a better world for ourselves. It is all very idealistic and uplifting, and while the importance of the message cannot be understated, I believe it is missing an important piece. At this point, most of us believe that in order to love others, you must love yourself first. While this adage is mostly speaking about romantic relationships, I believe that loving yourself and being kind to the world should go hand in hand. When you are working to accept your own flaws, why not also work to accept the flaws of others as well. There is a difference between being in love with someone and loving them; and so, I cannot understand why a message full of good intentions is failing to leave out a big opportunity to spread more love.
We are not alone. As much as you can try to isolate yourself, at some point, you have to enter the world and accept that you are not alone. Having confidence in who you are helps you understand that you deserve to be apart of the world. In that way, confidence can be freeing. Why not try to lift up others so that they can know their value as you do yours? There is a reason helping others makes us feel good, even without getting credit for it. Once, my friend told me about how she gave a street performer $20 and that she couldn't stop smiling afterwards because she knew it was something that would make his day better. Not an action that will change the world, but I doubt it went unnoticed by the performer after most likely being ignored or only tossed spare change that day.The things we do for each other to lift one another up don't necessarily have to always be these big gestures like donating half of your income to a charity each month. Realistically, that isn't always an option. A simple acknowledgment can be more than enough because at the end of the day, we all just want to feel valued. Life is hard for everyone and finding a purpose can seem daunting so letting people know that you see them reminds them that they aren't as alone as they may feel. I'm not saying help people for your own gain, but understand that by making an effort to be consistently kind to others cannot detract from your own self love.
The love you have for yourself should not be only for yourself. Yes, being kind to yourself is important. However, loving yourself is more of a journey than a destination and so, you should not be afraid to love others before you are totally confident with yourself. The truth is that your insecurities probably won't go away, the point is to accept them and not let them affect your everyday. If you wait to love others until you are totally and completely in love with yourself, you will miss out on the positive affect that being genuinely kind to others will bring to your life. You will miss out on connecting with others who you may have merely passed by before. You will miss out on being a positive force for the world. So don't just love yourself, love the world, too.
