the course of love never did run smooth
-William Shakespeare-
Of course, we all need love. Love is an important staple to happiness. However, this broken world that we live in doesn’t offer much love. At times, people also manipulate love till the point where your life is just black and white, and the only thing that you can see is true are lies and manipulation.
The First Step in Love
In reality, we’re just viewing things through a broken lense. Love still exists in this dark world but we can’t see it because we’re too hurt and battered. Genuine love still exists. True love still exists. The realization of the existence of true love needs to come within ourselves first. Only through loving yourself can you realize how true love feels like.
“Self Love”
Self love involves changing one’s mindset and most people struggle with the concept of self love. For example, you lose weight just so that you can appreciate your body more when you look at the mirror. We judge ourselves and set goals of how we can improve our looks so that can reach a certain “beauty standard”. In reality, the joy that we achieve after doing all these is temporary, and sometimes people use abuse the term “self love” as an excuse to cover the reality– being judgemental towards yourself.
Appreciating Yourself
The term “self love” refers to acceptance of you, all parts of you. It is beautiful and unconditional, meaning that no matter what struggles you may suffer from– physically, emotionally, or mentally, you will be strong enough to appreciate and love yourself. This is the start of how to realize who truly loves you.
Practicing Self Love:
1. Recognize that you are experiencing emotional distress or mental suffering.
2. Accept that the feeling is there.
3. Imagine what you might feel if you saw a loved one experiencing this feeling.
4. Challenge your negative story about yourself.
5. Think about how everybody messes up sometimes.
6. Decide what it would take to forgive yourself.
7. Use self-talk to encourage yourself.
Be a life coach to yourself.
“To love yourself is to understand you don’t need to be perfect to be good.”
– Unknown
