Love, the four-letter word that can make a person sane or crazy.
We are typically fed love stories that involve two people. Romeo and Juliet, Shahjahan and Mumtaz, Cleopatra and Mark Anthony, and the list go on.
Love is not bounded to exist only between two people. It may involve more or less than two. How many of us have come across stories about people being in love with themselves?
There is no love story better than the one we have with ourselves. The power of self-love is greater than any relationship. Since you are there for you, not depending on others.
Is that as easy as it sounds?
Of course not. Loving and having a crush on someone is not weird. But, loving oneself?
You must think that’s the craziest thing one can ever come across. But loving yourself has its perks too.
It is the most difficult relationship one can have. But it’s not impossible. It needs a lot of patience and understanding through the process since it involves you and only you. The efforts which we put to know others, should be done on ourselves first.
We have seen people changing themselves to look presentable and to be likable for the people whom they love or expecting to be loved.
But how many of us have tried to understand our real selves?
We get disappointed when we find people misunderstanding us and judging us without knowing about us.
But how many of us know the real you? Our wants and needs? That is a big question mark.
We try so hard to expect love from others when we do not give the four-letter word to us in the first place.
Who would love us when we are ashamed of ourselves?
The most difficult thing in the world is accepting and loving oneself. The effort which we put in loving others is more. When will we have time to look at ourselves?
We try to mask our originality around the people whom we wanted to love. We impersonate someone in our place and show the face that they need to and love to see.
And that is the place where we start to lose our individuality.
One must love ourselves for who we are, not based on how others want us. What is the reason for trying to change oneself? Because we are not confident about ourselves. We feel insecure and have doubts about us. We do not trust our real selves. We build our perceptions and assumptions that others have on us. And we tend to become someone whom we are not.
The rates of suicidal deaths and thoughts will become less once we stand for ourselves. When we feel that the world is against us and no one loves us, we must not get dejected.
Since there is one person who will support you, and loves you, and stays with you through thick and thin.
And that person will always be YOU.
Once you start loving yourself, there will be no insecurities. Self-love makes one confident.
A ship cannot sink unless the water gets inside it. Negativity cannot get inside you unless you let it inside your mind and heart. People may discriminate against us, outcast us, hate us, and blame us. But such things will not bother you if you love yourself.
One should know their real selves and start believing in themselves. Loving yourself does not hurt but expecting love from others does. Why should one look outside when we have it inside? When no one is there for us, let us be there for ourselves. It takes a lot of courage and confidence to stand for oneself. And if we succeed in it, no one can break us.
We are putting more focus on work, friends, and other’s worries than we did on ourselves. We are rushing through our “me time” without enjoying it.
How many of us have tried to talk with ourselves? Spend quality time in understanding oneself?
We may lose everything one day in our life, but we must never lose ourselves in the process of our life.
True love and acceptance need to be found from you and within you. In the process of pleasing others, we tend to forget ourselves. Let us stop focusing on others for some time. Let us take a moment to appreciate ourselves for fighting and not giving up on our life.
Love yourself.
Never make someone as a priority in your life. If you want to love others, you should love yourself first. Self-love is not a selfish act, but an important thing one must do. The thoughts about satisfying others, and putting their priority as ours, should come after us.
After all, we have only one life. Let us not waste it on others. Take your time to admire yourself, appreciate yourself, and love yourself.
There is no best love story than Self-love.
By R.Gomathi Sridevi, Thoothukkudi
