Have you ever felt like you could find 100 wonderful things to say about your friends but not even five about yourself? Ask around. I'll bet that you will find more people feeling like this than not. And this, my friends, needs to change. All of that crappy negative self talk needs to stop. You wouldn't say those things to someone you love. You need to treat yourself better.
Why is this a thing? We could look to a lot of different places for this answer. Maybe it was how we were raised. Maybe it's what we heard the adults in our life talking about when we were young and so now we do the same thing. Maybe it's the constant bombardment of beautiful people on the television and online that have been so airbrushed for so much of our lives. We don't even realize that what they look like is a lot of smoke and mirrors and not reality. Maybe we've been picked on so much, that were starting to believe all of the negativity that's thrown at us.
Whatever the reason, we need to take it upon ourselves to do better and change this.
And it starts with you. It starts with how you talk about yourself and how you talk about the people around you. If you're constantly judging the people around you and constantly judging yourself you'll never feel good. Cut yourself some slack. Be kind to yourself and others.
Now, I'm not telling you to tell yourself that you are perfect and can do no wrong. Because that's not true either. Everybody is human, everybody makes mistakes and nobody is perfect. But, we are a work in progress.
If you can own up to your mistakes, learn from them, move on and do better next time, you will be much happier. And when you do something that makes you feel good or is a success in your world, celebrate it! Did you do well on a test? Did you do something creative? Have you been working your butt off to be healthy? Did you give of your time to someone that needed it? That's awesome. Celebrate yourself!
But the next time you look in the mirror, and you think to yourself, "I'm not enough..." JUST STOP.
You are enough.
You have hands that lift and help. You have legs that run and jump and leap. You have eyes that see beauty in the world. You have a mouth that smiles and when it does it lights up a room. You have a talent. It might be different then the people around you but it's there. You have a heart that beats strong. You have a spirit that wants to do good and be good.
You can see the good in your friends, but you need to see it in yourself.
I would like to encourage you to take out a notebook or journal or even a scrap piece of paper. I want you to write down 10 things that you like about yourself that have nothing to do with anything that you've purchased. (Do not tell yourself that you like yourself because you have a fabulous shoe collection. Think about who you are and what you have done.) And be patient if this takes you a while. Keep working at it.
We are all a work in progress, and you are enough.
LP