10 Reasons Why You Should Love Yourself

These are trying times. Where we are bombarded every day with unattainable beauty standards and negativity about people who don't fit the bill, or who don't wish to be squished into the mould of conventional beauty, it is hard to feel good about and love yourself, especially if you are one of those who don't fit to that standard, unintentionally or not. It gets very hard to love yourself sometimes, but here are 10 reasons why you should.

1. Because there will always be people who won't.
2. Because when you're breaking down into an ocean of tears on your sheets, and you need someone to there, sometimes there will be no one there, except for yourself. 
3. Because sometimes you'll be surrounded by 'friends' that make you feel very alone and very shitty.
4. Because your parents won't understand, and you won't want to tell them.
5. Because telling your friends will feel like burdening them unnecessarily. 
6. Because you deserve to be loved by someone who will stay forever, and that is you. 
7. Because you deserve to be comfortable in your own skin. 
8. Because you should not NEED to depend on people's opinions to validate your beauty.
9. Because you are made of the same things that make the stars in the sky and the oceans and the galaxy, and you are your own type of beautiful.
10. Because nobody could ever be another you, and that is a superpower within itself. 

Like everyone else, I do experience deep falls into the pit known as self-hatred, and it is hard to escape it. Usually, when I start feeling awful about myself, and when the voices in my head turn vicious, I'm usually alone. And I know how it feels to be alone, lying in bed at night, crying and wishing I wouldn't wake up. 

In those times, I'd let myself drift off to sleep. Those are the fortunate instances where I'll wake up and feel better. But in my waking moments, the only way out of that seemingly endless abyss, is to let it all out, and pick yourself up. 

Tell yourself you are important. You matter, you are gorgeous, majestic and you are worth every single fuck given. It's not easy to do that when you're down in the dumps, sure. But when nobody is there to cuddle you and kiss your forehead and shower you in affection, you have to help yourself. 

Obviously, if you have someone to be there for you, it would be ideal and you'd be lucky. But the matter of fact, is that you'll be alone sometimes, and that is when loving yourself is the most important.

It's a journey, let me tell you. It really is, and it isn't and will not be an easy one. But trust me, it will be worth it. It wasn't easy for me to love myself like the way I do now. It was hard to get to this point. And even though I still have a long way to go, accepting my flaws, and my mistakes and my imperfections, while also acknowledging my strengths, and the good things about me,  have freed me in a way, because I don't rely on peoples' opinions of me to make myself feel better, and negative comments don't affect me either. Because I know myself, and I'm ok with myself, and nobody can take that away from me.

This is the greatest gift you can ever give yourself. 

Love yourself because you deserve it.

Love,

Ber