I'm sure you've been in a place where you don't feel like you're enough. You don't feel pretty enough, smart enough, successful enough, or skinny enough. You look in the mirror and all you see are your flaws. Trust me, I've been there. I know that it feels like Nobody understands what you're going through but I want you to know that somebody does... because I do.
It's taken me a lifetime to love myself but I want to share with you what has helped me so that hopefully, you can start your journey to self-love sooner than I did.
1) Give yourself compliments.
When you wake up in the morning, look at yourself in the mirror and give yourself 3 compliments. It could be something as simple as "You have pretty eyes", "You're a good person", or "You're talented".
Say them out loud so that you can hear them. Hear them and believe them. If you find it hard to come up with compliments for yourself, ask a friend or family member to help you out. They'll be more than happy to comply because they see all the things that make you great even when you can't see it yourself.
2) Do things that make you happy.
We often get so bogged down by everyday life - work, school, errands, taking care of others - that we forget to make time for ourselves. It's important to do things each day that make us happy even if it's just for 30 minutes. Read a book, take a bubble bath with some candles, listen to your favorite album from start to finish - do whatever brings joy into your life. When we make time for happiness, we increase our overall satisfaction with life which then leads to increased self-esteem.
3) Be around people who appreciate you.
Hang around people who make you feel good about yourself - people who laugh at your jokes, people who are interested in your story, people who think you're beautiful just the way you are.
Avoid negative people like the plague because all they'll do is bring you down and make you question everything good about yourself. If you're anything like me, you've already done way too much of that! The right people will build you up and make you feel like the amazing person that you are meant to be.
Liking yourself is a journey and it doesn't happen overnight, but if we work on it each day, we can get closer and closer to self-love. The steps above are just some small things that have helped me on my journey and I hope they help jumpstart yours too!
Remember, YOU ARE ENOUGH! Just because someone else may not see it doesn't mean it isn't true. Print this out and put is somewhere where you'll see it every day as a reminder until self-love comes naturally to YOU!