Love yourself.

Be yourself.

Those two phrases are something you hear all of the time. Those two phrases are also so much easier said than done. Loving yourself seems like a simple concept, but you just can’t seem to figure it out. No matter how many people have told you how beautiful you are, you still don’t believe them. And when you try and tell yourself, you don’t believe you either. I know what it is like to be you.

For some reason, you can’t seem to find the inner confidence that every other girl around you has. Faking confidence is just as hard as actually having it for you. You feel like everyone surrounding you is beautiful and put together while you feel unattractive and falling apart. I’m not here to tell you how beautiful you are (even though you are). I’m here because what I’ve learned is that it actually is really easy to embrace who you are and love that person. They say that you can’t love anyone else until you love yourself, but I don’t think that’s true.

You have qualities within you that nobody else in the world possesses. You have something that someone else wants. While you are on Instagram stalking the perfect girl in your sorority and wondering how she is so beautiful, the girl you went to high school with is stalking your Instagram wishing she could be you. Think about all the people in your life who love you. Whether it’s your friends, your parents, your boyfriend, etc. Think about how easy it is for them to love you. They didn’t have to love you. They chose to love you. They chose to love you because of all of those unique and amazing qualities that you have.

I think I’ve finally figured out why loving yourself is so hard and hating who you are is so easy. When you look at yourself in the mirror, you see all of the negative things about you that nobody else knows. You see your fears, your anxiety, your crazy side, all of the bad choices you’ve made in your past, and all of the situations that could have gone a little better. The thing is, nobody else knows about any of those things.

Sure, some of your friends might know about a few of them, but when it comes to all of the not-so-perfect things in your life, you’re the only one who fully knows about it all. That’s why it’s so easy for others to love you. When they look at you, they don’t see any of those negative things. They see all of the good things, because they know that all of the positives outweigh the negatives.

The thing you need to realize is that every single person on this Earth has negatives. Everyone has demons that they wish weren’t there and that they hate about themselves. Kendall Jenner has negatives. Really, she does. Nobody knows what those are, so it’s so easy to love her. If you could just do that for yourself, think about how easy your life would be. The day you realize that those negatives are not hanging on a list attached to your back is the day you can begin to walk on the path to loving yourself.

So start realizing all of these things. Start understanding that loving the person you see in the mirror is really an easy task. I know it seems hard at first, but once you do, I promise your life, and every aspect of it, will become so much greater than it already is.