As Valentine's Day passed by, mixed emotions may have surfaced. Feelings of love and feelings of hate. Valentine's Day is a trying time for us singles, but I'm here to tell you that it is the perfect time to think about yourself. Yes you may have been single this Valentine's Day, but that doesn't mean that you're not awesome. Remember to love yourself today and every day.
Why is loving yourself such a hard thing to do? Society tells us that Valentine's Day is a big deal. It tells us that relationships are important. Society tells girls to validate themselves by comparison to others. Well, guess what. I'm here to tell you the complete opposite. Compare yourself to only you. Compare yourself to who you used to be, and realize how awesome you really are now, and how far you've come.
There's a great promo video that was done by Dove a few years ago that follows the 'Real Beauty' campaign to help girls remember what is important. The video follows a sketch artist who sits behind a curtain and asks women questions about themselves and about their facial features. He draws portraits just by what they describe, and then the women leave without seeing the finished product.
Later, the artist invites the women back, and introduces them to a stranger. He then asks the stranger to describe the women they just met and sketches them based on the strangers' description, and compares the two drawings. The results are astounding.
All of the pictures of the women that were drawn based on their own descriptions were ugly. The were fatter, sadder, older and meaner-looking versions of themselves that looked absolutely nothing like them. The drawings based off of the strangers' descriptions, however, were beautiful. These drawings were happy, warm, perfect representations of the women they portrayed.
When the women saw the comparisons, they were amazed. They couldn't believe how sad and inaccurately they described themselves and how different and spot-on someone else did. The video shows the real problem with women in today's society; they don't know how beautiful they are. Women do not give themselves enough credit.
Women are taught at a young age that they aren't supposed to love themselves. It is almost taught by accident and without really knowing, but it's doing quite a lot of damage. Women learn to compare themselves to others and to strive to become just like someone else. Young girls look up to the most popular girl in school or the most popular celebrity at the time, and want to look just like them. They forget that looks aren't everything, and that it's okay to be different.
Then, they grow up to be insecure women that look for significant others in validation of their beauty. They think that since they were single this Valentine's Day, they must not be beautiful. Well, girls, you are beautiful! And no one needs to tell you that but yourself. Remind yourself every day of how awesome you are, and someday, someone else will be there to remind you too. Until then, don't forget to love yourself. That's the most important.
