BY KAHA G. – 14 YEARS OLD
“To fall in love with yourself is the first secret to happiness.” Robert Morely
Do you ever feel like you’re the “odd one out” in a group of friends? You feel like everyone and everything would be better off if you just disappeared. Well, let me inform you that those thoughts will target your mind if you don’t have self-love. Self-love is essential for a human being, which is difficult, because 85% of people struggle with it. That’s why I’ll be addressing how to develop self-love.
Most people don’t acknowledge how important self-love is, and I think it worsened during the pandemic. We were all stuck at home and lost most of our motivation, and access to visit the people we care about. Thankfully, the pandemic has progressively gotten better because I’ve noticed that the malls, shops, restaurants, and schools have opened up. The reason why it got worse is that when someone without self-love is isolated by himself or herself, it’s like they’re stuck in a tight box that is filled up with negative thoughts drowning them by the second. Which is treacherous!
Now I’ll tell you how to recognize if you don’t have self-love, and what to do. The signs are:
- Saying negative things/being critical about yourself
- Negatively joking about yourself
- Focusing on your negatives/ignoring your achievements
- Blaming yourself when things go wrong
- Thinking other people are better than you, and assuming you don’t deserve to have fun
- Not accepting compliments
- Avoiding challenges for fear of failing
- Being overly upset by disapproval or criticism
- Feeling sad, depressed, anxious, ashamed, angry or worthless.
If you didn’t notice, all of those symptoms lower your mental state, which is why you have to face the problem. Looking deep into the eyes of the root cause can help you inch toward finding a solution, and that will result in a positive mind-set.
Truly loving who you are is one of the hardest things you can do, but the perks that come with it are astonishing. I’m not saying everyone can do it in the blink of an eye, but with baby steps, you could achieve so much more than what you are capable of. Once I was told that being repetitive with positive affirmations could also help your mental state.
