Your Forever Person Isn’t As Important As The Person In The Mirror

Your forever person will make you smile when you’re in the midst of tears. Your forever person will make you laugh when you’ve just had the most stressful day of your life. But your forever person cannot magically make you fall in love the girl you see in the mirror.

He cannot change the fact that you cringe whenever you see pictures of yourself because you hate how large your thighs look. He cannot change the way that you smile with closed lips because you hate the way your teeth look.

Your forever person can drown you in compliments about how stunning you are — even when you’re walking around with sweatpants and without makeup — but he cannot convince you that you’re beautiful when you don’t believe that yourself.

Your forever person can remind you that you are strong, that you are intelligent, that you matter, but he cannot make you feel like you are worth something when your inner voice keeps telling you that’s a lie. He cannot change your perception of yourself.

Even though your forever person is important, he is not nearly as important as that girl in the mirror.

You have to treat that girl with respect. You have to speak up when someone tries to take advantage of her. You have to create standards and encourage her to stick to them. You have to trust her to make the right decisions.

You have to be gentle with that girl in the mirror. You have to treat her with kindness. You have to tell her when you are proud of her. You have to build her up instead of continually knocking her down.

You have to believe in that girl in the mirror. You have to remind her that she is capable of anything. You have to pull her up again after she falls down instead of looking for a man to rescue her. You have to be her hero.

You have to pamper that girl in the mirror. You have to give her a break when she is weighed down with stress. You have to let her relax when the work is becoming too much. You have to take care of her mental health as well as her physical health.

You have to love that girl in the mirror. You have to stop acting like her worst enemy. You have to stop listing off the things that you hate about her. You have to accept her, flaws and all. You have to focus on her positives.

Even though your forever person deserves your love and affection and attention, you deserve it, too. You have to put effort into your relationship with yourself, not just into your relationship with him.

After all, your forever can make you feel better temporarily, but those feelings will eventually fade away — unless you learn to become friends with that girl in the mirror. Unless you learn to love yourself unconditionally. Unless you learn to treat yourself as well as your forever person treats you.