“No one is you and this is your power.” ~ Dave Grohl

This is how I found my real self.

With an open heart I can say: a path to self-acceptance is not easy, but it can be the most important journey of our life.

When we start loving ourselves, we stop suffering and take control. Do not get me wrong, the fear is still there sometimes, but it no longer drives the car. It just sits in the back seat with its mouth shut.

The love that I’m talking about is not simply buying ourselves flowers and eating an oatmeal to get the energy flowing. For me, self-love is something much more: it is being our own best friend and our biggest support, even in the moments when everything goes wrong. I really started living when I admitted to myself that I am not as perfect as everybody else perceives me to be.

I did not like what I saw in the mirror and did not believe I was smart enough, talented enough or anything enough. I was scared to speak up because I grew up thinking that what I wanted to say did not matter. Big words, I know, but this is how I felt for long time. Thankfully, I knew one thing—I will not rest until I learn how to love every cell of myself. Deep inside I knew the only way out—I had to stop sabotaging myself and accept all the broken parts.

Loving ourselves is not an easy process but it is totally rewarding.

The good news: we can start loving ourselves any time, including here and now.

1. Take a piece of paper and be as honest with yourself as you would be with anyone you love.
2. Write down all the things you secretly hate about yourself, considering your body, mind, talents and health. Read it aloud. Cry it out or laugh it off.
3. Admit to yourself: it’s okay not to be okay.
4. Now cross them all out, one by one.
5. Write something positive next to every single sentence that you crossed out, with color and capital letters. Be brave, say aloud things that make you feel good about yourself.
6. Now take these affirmations and make them your best friends. They will give you confidence and courage and turn you into somebody you want to become. I know you might not yet believe it, but if you keep reading them every single day, they will become a part of your fiber, not just sentences on the paper.

There is no such a thing as a magic wand in self-development.

I will keep doing my baby steps in the direction of loving myself. It’s called working on our mind. If we have time for the gym and for eating greens, maybe it is a good time to take a look at what’s happening inside.

Be ready to face your demons, there is nothing more cleansing than that. You might find some scary things you will not like: fears and doubts, and emotions that have been stuck for some time but whatever you do—carry on, brave heart. There are beautiful treasures to be found.

~

Author: Dominika Prazmowska

Image: courtesy of the author

Editor: Ashleigh Hitchcock