Here Are All The Ways You Should Love Yourself

I want to love me.

Because you love me.

Because I love you.

Because I love me.

I want to love me because I – as you once said – am the most deserving of the kind of love I am so willing to share with other people. I want to love me because I want to experience what my love is like and to never settle for anything less than that.

I want to love me because I want to set an example.

People have to start realizing how important it is to start with one’s self, how important it is to love one’s self, and how that is not necessarily vain or narcissistic.   

Love yourself because you can and because you should. Love yourself because you deserve it. Pay attention to the things that make you feel good about yourself and give more time to those things. Indulge yourself a wee bit more. Stand in front of the mirror in the morning and appreciate the things you like about yourself together with the parts of you that you would still like to work on. Love your love-handles and your blemishes and your moles and your messy hair and your almond-shaped eyes. Love whatever society says isn’t “beautiful” because when you love something enough, it becomes beautiful and that is what matters more than anything.

Dress nicely – because why not?

Get yourself a cup of that expensive coffee you have previously deprived yourself of because “who pays that much for coffee?” Get a smoothie, and if you prefer the banana-peanut butter combination, forget about the calories for once. Get a milkshake, for that matter, or whatever is it that you fancy, because again, why not?

Take long leisurely walks. Slow down for a bit. Give yourself time to breathe and to just do nothing. Do the things you liked doing before work consumed most, if not all, of your time.

Go to the beach and relax your mind. Go to an art museum and feed your soul. Go to your favorite restaurant and feed your cravings. Do it. Do it all.

Be kinder to yourself. Stop beating yourself up for things that are already in the past. They are only failures if you allow them to consume you. They are only failures if you quit. Forgive yourself for your misjudgments, because life really is essentially a trial and error kind of deal. Let go of all that holds you down and keeps you from moving forward. And then decide it is finally time to move on. And then move on.

Remember who you were before your worries and anxieties drained you.

Allow the universe to charm you again. Believe that it is not out to disappoint you nor to break your heart. It loves you.

And you really should love you, too.