"One day you'll make peace with your demons, and the chaos in your heart will settle flat. And maybe for the first time in you life, life will smile right back at you and welcome you home."
-R.M. Drake
Society has created a world where everyone is defined by what they look like. Whether you’re “too fat” or “too skinny,” labels follow us everywhere and seem to entail how we feel about ourselves. Everyone else’s opinion and ideals have begun to define our self-worth, and we’ve forgotten to appreciate ourselves for everything we are. Each and every one of us are so much more than what we see, and we all have unique things about us that make us beautiful.
1. You only have one skin.
Wear it with complete confidence. At the end of the day, you will only be living in the body and skin you were born with. Why would you want to hate that? Your skin is unique to YOU. Nobody else can take that from you. Don’t let someone else’s opinion of how they believe you should look take away from that. If we were all meant to look the same, we wouldn’t all be so special and apart from each other.
2. Everybody Struggles.
No one is 100 percent happy with who they are, and every person walking on this Earth has some sort of insecurity. If you are struggling with some part of yourself, I can guarantee someone else is too. Everyone has demons and ghosts that they have to someday face and overcome. Even if you feel like you are alone in a world of self-hate and depression, you are most certainly not. Someone is right there with you, and that should give you all the more motivation to love yourself just a little more.
3. You'll Feel Better About Yourself, Overall.
Learning to love yourself not only boosts you self-esteem, but it builds up your confidence, happiness, and overall view of who you are. When you love yourself, you learn to radiate that, and suddenly everything you do becomes positive and makes you want to go out and live a wonderful life. Everything is easier, even the little hardships and struggles you face, become so much easier when you learn to love yourself.
4. Self-Love Comes First.
If you can’t learn to love yourself, it is very hard to turn around and try to love someone else. You could find yourself falling in and out with people, because you feel you need to compensate for your lack of self-love. Without knowing how to love yourself, you will always carry an emptiness into any relationship you enter. Without knowing how to love yourself, you’re never going to learn how to love another.
5. You've Only Ever Seen Yourself in Pictures or Mirrors.
Technically, none of us know what we actually look like. You’ve never witnessed how you look in the morning, sipping coffee, or the way you laugh after somebody tells a joke, or even the way you look when you concentrate on something you’re extremely passionate about. In these little moments, we are much more beautiful and special than we realize. Have you ever taken the chance to look at someone you cared about, do some routine and think of how adorable they look doing it? Being that you don’t get to witness those little pieces of yourself, you exclude them when thinking about the bits and parts of yourself that you love.
6. There is Only One You.
Nobody, not society or any individual, can take that from you. Everything about you is unique and you were made so, for a reason. Don’t let little quirks or differences about how you look or act, defer you from believing you are a beautiful, incredible, and worthy person. Everyone deserves happiness and everyone deserves love. Take a moment to breathe in who you are, and be happy for everything about yourself that you were blessed with.
