It's time for you to start loving yourself. It's time for you to look in the mirror and be proud of the person staring back at you. I know it's so much easier said than done, but it's time to really figure out what makes you proud of the person you are, what qualities about yourself you love, and exemplifying them to really just love who you are.

It's hard to always see the beauty the person staring back at you in a mirror. It's so easy nowadays to nitpick every little thing that could be wrong with you because it doesn't measure up to what society is telling you what you need to be. It's so easy to be down on yourself and think, "If only I lost 5 lbs... If only my smile was whiter... If only I made more money... If only I had better eyebrows and lashes..."

Whatever your "if only" is, it's only holding you back from who you are and loving what you are.

What if for every If only you thought of, you decided to compliment yourself. What if you decided to take your, "If only I lost 5 lbs," and instead, you thought - "I really love my hair today." What if instead of thinking, "I hate the way I look," you thought - "I am an amazing friend and have amazing friends."

What if you decided to combat those negative thoughts with positive energy and self-love. And what if you decided to look in the mirror and tell yourself that although you see flaws, they can always be fixed, but the person that's on the inside if the person that matters.

Yes - this is SO much easier said than done. No one said that being positive and loving yourself is easy. Sometimes, it's the hardest thing to do and that's because, for some, it's so much easier to pour love into others but so hard to find in yourself. It's easy to lift others to distract yourself from the pain and hurt you're feeling.

But when you start to work on yourself and start to pick yourself up and love yourself, you can love others so much more, because it's coming from a place of peace and comfort in yourself. Once you start working towards a better you, from the inside out, you'll be more at peace with the small, little things that you magnify and hate about yourself now. You'll realize that magnifying them is only making it harder to be happy day-to-day.

If you can't think of anything, think of someone you love. You're really good at loving them, right? Maybe you're good at being a daughter or son to your parents or you really love your school or you really love the way you decorated your room. Whatever it is, magnify it. Be proud of it and then find something else to love or to be proud of. It doesn't matter what it is or how stupid you might say it is - but choose to love it.

It's time for you to start loving yourself. It's time for you to look at the things you're proud of and really lean into them. It's time for you to love the person in the mirror staring back and why not try to start doing that today? It'll be a long, hard journey, but it will be so rewarding when you figure out the things that make you proud of the person you are and no one will ever be able to take that away from you.