cynosure

But that’s so hard to do, with the things you put me through.

Feel this Way by Consequence feat. John Legend

Don’t you feel like that sometimes, about yourself? You desperately want to love yourself, but sometimes what you put yourself through, like holding onto guilt or resentment, not taking care of yourself, being too self-critical– makes it harder.

“Loving myself is all I want to do.”
That’s all you need to do, anyway (love yourself, that is), to be happy– everything else will fall into place eventually.

Now tell that to yourself. Aloud or not. Ten (that’s 10!) times. Every morning. Every hour and minute you need to be reminded: “Loving myself is all I want to do.”

But how do you love yourself, or even learn to love yourself? I know it’s not as easy as just someone telling you to love yourself, but for now, if you believe (with all of your being) in the statement: “I love myself”, you’re already one step forward.

And don’t be afraid to be yourself. Being yourself is one more (HUGE) step towards loving yourself– and that expression of yourself, in its stubbornness to refuse to simply become whatever anyone else tells you to become, is revolutionary in its own right. (Ever wonder why that particular combination of letters comprises “rvxn”.org? But that’s an explanation for another day…)

NEVER be afraid to sing your own song, no matter how ridiculous it sounds. (Blue sky in the sun? It doesn’t even make sense! But I love it anyway because he’s so unafraid to express himself.)

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I look at my body, stripped by myself, with my glasses off. The lines blur together in the mirror.

It doesn’t matter what or who I am, we’re all parts of the same great thing.

We are different but not separate.

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Do you know what’s the easiest way to accept or open your mind to or forgive someone you might not have wanted to before?

Talk to them. Reach out to them. Communicate. Or even just smile.

How can you love them or help them, reach out to them, do anything for them, or simply open your mind to their existence if you don’t, can’t even strike up a conversation? Talking with them makes us more able to relate to them, to be able to recognize that they, too, are just like us– humans who wish for and are entitled to happiness just as much as the next person. Let’s make the first step and simply say hi.

Instead of this distance. This vast and cold distance we put between ourselves and others that ultimately leads to even more isolation ignorance and prejudice instead of understanding and acceptance.

We were all strangers once. And then we got to know each other.

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I find the whole notion of not trusting people in general because your trust has been hurt so much in the past to be so sad. It assumes that just because some people are a certain way, all people might be. It’s prejudice on a species scale– some humans may betray your trust, but that doesn’t mean all humans will.

If you stop trusting others because you were hurt once, you lose. You’re the one who misses out on the full spectrum of interesting people out there.

If you refuse to forgive someone, you’re the one left bitter and hurting.

Complete vulnerability is a great strength. Putting yourself out there, opening up, forgiving others, revealing yourself to the world, letting everyone know the real you instead of an artificially constructed image, seeing the goodness in people after being hurt so many times takes courage, but inevitably transforms you into a stronger person.

You can do it, though. You can defy all those people who take the easy way out and simply stop living, because living means experiencing with feelings and feelings means the possibility of pain. But that pain is so beautiful because it’s a part of you too, and every time you survive that pain your heart grows even mightier.

You can do what some people now find impossible– trust other human beings.

I trust you. I believe in you.

And even if you might hurt me, I’ll forgive you, I’ll learn to love you even more, and I’ll trust in your inherent goodness anyway.

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I didn’t write this post for… me.

It was for you, to show you that every damn inch of you deserves love from yourself, even if “society”, the media, your co-worker or friend or parent or sibling or cousin or even partner tells you otherwise. Don’t believe them.

This post is all about you.

So, tell me:

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