Love yourself!

By Anagha Dabhade

At some points in life, we definitely had moments of self-doubt. Why? It’s due to various reasons such as lack of confidence, not being able to achieve our goals, receiving unhealthy advice from random people or dealing with stress and anxiety. These factors can turn a happy person into a sad one.

I’ve personally experienced this sudden change in myself, and it’s something that everyone goes through at some point. However, it’s not something to ignore or allow to persist without attempting to help ourselves. Disliking yourself and continuously harbouring self-hatred is a bad idea.

So, if you have stopped liking yourself, you should explore various ways to regain self-love. Sometimes, we just keep forgetting about ourselves and instead choose to love someone else, as if it’s not a big deal. However, if this problem escalates by day, you’ll find yourself filled with negative thoughts. This should never happen. Facing such serious problems at a young age is incorrect.

To overcome the habit of hating yourself, there are many approaches. I am going to share three simple and essential strategies that helped me overcome this phase. First, if you don’t like yourself, create a new version of yourself. Don’t change for anyone just because they passed some unpleasant remarks on you. Instead, focus on self-improvement. Consider practicing meditation and waking up early as it can help you both physically and mentally.

In addition to this, stop draining your energy for people who don’t offer you moral support when needed. Next, read, read and read! Reading good books really helps to keep yourself engaged with work. Staying busy can help you accomplish your goals. Besides, develop new hobbies or revisit old ones that you used to enjoy. Don’t pay attention to hate comments online or offline.

The best thing you can do is to go for a nature walk and admire the beauty of the nature. Observing the open skies and beautiful colours can bring relief from negative thoughts.

Second, make new friends who align with your aura and make you feel comfortable. Good friends hold positive values and provide support during life’s challenges. It will help to be confident with your own thoughts around them.

Choose a good group of friends over the bad ones. Don’t allow people to judge you; they are not responsible for your personal growth. You are the one who can assess and work on your weaknesses.

Third, practice self-love which is immensely powerful. Someone who doesn’t love themselves cannot genuinely love others. Hence, self-love is a fundamental element of loving others. Without it, you will continue to harbour self-hatred. When I struggled with self-love, few quotes motivated and still motivate me to love myself. Those are:

“Love yourself & learn to enjoy your own company because if you don’t love your company, nobody else will!”

– Muniba Mazari, Pakistani activist

“Our heart is like a jug, if it is empty you won’t be able to give anyone anything.”

– Gaur Gopal Das, Indian monastic