Over the past year, I have been learning to love myself more and more. I am one of those people who believes that self-love is of the highest importance for people to achieve, and I always encourage others to do the same. However, learning to love yourself for who you are as a person and accepting all your flaws is not always an easy task. It definitely takes time, I mean I know it is still an ongoing process for me because life is not always easy for us. But, I am a firm believer in that loving who you are first is crucial in order to build long-lasting relationships with others, including both friendships and romantic relationships.

I think it can be a struggle for all of us at one point or another, though. Some days we feel so highly about ourselves, but other days we feel so lost and don't like who we are at all and may not feel good enough. But I think that is completely normal because I don't think anyone feels great about who they are 24/7 around the clock. Our society makes it seem like whenever someone posts a nice selfie of themselves of Instagram because they are feeling confident that it actually makes them seem conceited. Our society glamorizes the idea that hating on yourself is better than loving yourself and embracing who you truly are.

And in case you haven't realized this yet, everyone has things that they feel insecure about and things they wish they could change about themselves. Even so, you and everyone else are still beautiful the way you were created, including all the things you may not necessarily like about yourself. So, it's perfectly okay to feel confident about yourself and give yourself compliments. You may not have the "perfect" model body that everyone gawks over or flawless skin, but that's completely okay. You can still love yourself regardless.

As I mentioned, learning to love yourself is a process and does not just happen overnight. However, when you learn to become confident in who you are as an individual despite everything else, that creates so much power within. You create a positive energy that is quite noticeable by others. You learn to stop caring what other people think of you because you have accepted yourself the way you are. Even if you have to subtly tell yourself that you are awesome every once in a while, that's okay! At the end of the day, all that really matters is that you are happy with yourself. So, do whatever it takes to get you to that point because you deserve it.