Love Yourself: I don't want just exist, I want to live!

 Loving ourselves is a simple idea but sometimes hard to do.

I want to love myself, the way I wish they did. I want to know myself more. I want to love myself because I know that we can’t fully be there for our true selves or for other people when we are 'pouring from an empty cup’. When we love ourselves first then we can love people around us. I believe that when I love myself, everything will gettin’ easier, such as I can be more confident, do a lot of activity, more explore, etc.

I’ve been trying to journal my thoughts and my problems, how I feel about it, what I'm grateful for the day as a form of effort to know about myself.

What I am wearing when I have the best time?

What I do to spoil myself?

What’s my favorite thing to eat?

What I love to listen to?

When am I feel most at peace?

What am I crave more of?

I don’t want just exist, I want to live!

I should get to know more about myself. What I like and dislike, what am I non-negotiable needs, what makes me feel most like myself? Just like when we love someone involves knowing them, right? Deeply. And accepting them. So how can I fully love myself if I don’t know who am I?

I should reaffirm what I love about my daily. Honestly I’m really bad at this. It's hard for me to tell good words for myself but I want to, and currently, I’m working on it. I also want to focus on what I love about myself and trying to improve it.

I should be kinder to myself when I’m fucked up. I want to take a lesson of self-growth at that moment and apply that lesson in the future.

I should earn my respect. Doing the right thing when no one is watching allows us to have a better reputation with ourselves. When we did that, we can stand more firmly in who we know we are, even if we’re misunderstood by others.

I want to accept where I’m now in this life, even if I don’t love what I see. Owning who am I, flaws and all, is one of the most powerful things I can do for myself and the people around me.

I want to invest in future me. Work out when I don’t feel like it. Read something instead of scrolling for one hour. Do what's good for my future, even if I don’t feel like it at the moment.

I want to feel freely. We know that our current state of mind isn’t permanent. Releasing added guilt for what we feel allows us to let things flow through us rather than holding our feelings hostage. I tell myself that whatever my feeling is alright. I’ve to let myself feel it to move past it.

So what does self-love look like for me? I want to pay attention to what I am doing when I feel my best. And I also know that self-love has its limits, we shouldn’t use the term ‘self-love’ to serve as a justification for our lazy behaviour because self-love doesn’t harm ourselves or other people. Self-love is self-care.

To love ourselves is to be aware that we are suffering and have the intention to alleviate this suffering within us. People said that loving ourselves is not a goal, it’s a process. I want to continue to get to know myself on a deeper level. Not just who am I today, but who am I becoming. Something that I have to realize and do every day, for the sake of my own happiness. And now, let me close this post with a wise quote from Louise L. Hay: “You have been criticizing yourself for years and it hasn’t worked. Try approving of yourself and see what happens.”