Love Yourself: It's Hard

   There is a lot of talk about loving yourself floating around, all this pseudo positivity floating around about "love yourself, before loving someone else". The thing is though: loving yourself is extremely hard! I know this first hand, I have a lot of days where I doubt every single thing I do, and I know many of my friends that do the same thing. Some of the women I know, the first thing in the morning that they do, is standing in the bathroom, critiquing everything about themselves. "Look at my hair, it's so frizzy!" "Why does my stomach look like that?" "I wish my hips were wider"... And so on, for several minutes.
   This is something a lot of people struggle with. Being the first person, every day who offers negativity in your life is something extremely hard to go through, and something that no one deserves. You are the first person to give criticism about yourself, and you keep feeding those negative feelings about you. I myself doubt me, very often. "Is this good enough to post?" "Why does my arm look like this is this picture, I can't post it now." "I'm so stupid, why didn't I change this before?" So trust me, I know what I'm talking about.
   Self critique isn't all negative though, it is quite positive, when used correctly. Taking time to reflect about what you do and what you want, what you can improve and what you should probably stop doing, it's not a bad thing. However, sticking with the negative energy from your thoughts is very self-destructive. Putting yourself down isn't going to lead to anything good. Ever.
   Loving yourself is hard, I know. There is no manual for things like this, no step for step method you can use to start loving yourself in a week. You can't do that. But if you really want to love yourself, I'd recommend getting to know yourself. Knowing your strengths and weaknesses is the first and most important step towards loving yourself.
(photo credit: Everyday Power Blog)