Baby, I was born this way!
Loving yourself is a process that takes time. Maybe you dated the guy with the jacked-up truck and then realized he was more shallow than the kitty pool. That's when I decided I was going to stop wasting time dating the WRONG guys when I could be focusing on the one relationship that mattered the most: myself.
It sounds simple right? I can love me because I am me. That’s what I thought – I was going to wake up loving who I was, learning to love my flaws, my big thighs, and my Asian eyes. I couldn’t have been more wrong. Loving yourself isn’t something you do overnight. Here are the four things I've learned by loving myself:
1. Confidence.
When loving yourself, you gain the confidence to do anything. You can grab life by the horns and hold your head up high knowing that you are beautiful.
2. Learning to love your body.
You learn to accept and embrace your flaws and you start to love them. I learned that not looking like a Victoria Secret Angel is okay, in fact, it’s more than okay. I’m sorry, but I’ve been in a relationship with food since I was born, and I’ll keep eating my cheeseburgers. Can I have a Cosmo with that?
3. Being unapologetically you.
You learn to stand up for what you believe in and start knowing your self-worth. Maybe you let guys walk all over you, and you just stood there and let them. You did it not because you wanted to but because you were too in love with them to say anything. Most importantly, you learn to say the word no and you realize when your invisible line has been crossed. When you start being in love with yourself you can kiss that person goodbye and just be FIERCE. You can now stand your ground and realize you are worth it, you are worth more than letting some guy in a jacked-up truck treat you as if you don’t matter. I promise a guy walking out of your life won’t be the worst thing that will ever happen to you. Finding the right guy is like trying on shoes – you have to try on many shoes before you can find the perfect fit.
4. Happiness.
When you stop disliking the things that make you who you are, you can finally be happy with yourself and embrace new beginnings. Choosing to love myself was the best choice I have ever made. I kissed the old me goodbye and welcomed the person that I was becoming. I opened my arms to the world of possibilities. I learned that having flaws is a good thing because it allows us to realize that perfection is unattainable and having flaws is beautiful. I now embrace my stubbornness, impatience, my thighs that touch, and not having the perfect body. Learning to love yourself isn’t easy, and I am not going to say it is, but it’s so worth it. If loving yourself means happiness then trying it makes it worth it.
