A Short List Of Things I Love About Myself

There are several things that we’re taught as we grow up – how to calculate simple Maths sums and what perfect grammar/ spelling looks like and what the equation for H20 is. Or how many years the Cold War lasted and what two colors combine together to make purple, orange or green.

But we weren’t taught the important stuff, like self-love.

We were never taught that we should appreciate our personality traits and special skills, and by that, I don’t mean the ability to write a certain number of words in a minute or the fact that you speak several different languages. These are important things; however, they aren’t what make us special.

By special skills I mean the things that make you different, like your laughter, your quirks, your emotionality or the lack of it, or your ability to hold situations together.

Whenever someone asked me how I felt about myself, I’d automatically point out my imperfections – my nose or long face or that I was too loud or quiet, or neither. The reason for this is because I wasn’t taught the importance of self-love in the way that I was taught everything else.

I had to learn it for myself, but unfortunately, some of us never learn this lesson the right way.

Most of us hold onto what we don’t like about ourselves instead of holding onto parts of ourselves that are valuable; we identify characteristics that we’ve been told aren’t good enough. And that’s why we fail to see how beautiful we can be.

But I’ve realized that I am not being a narcissist if I tell people that I love me – I am simply expressing self-love. And that is a wonderful thing; telling yourself and everyone else what you love about yourself is a brave thing to do.

It takes courage to stand in a room filled with people and tell them that ‘I am proud of me’.

So, today, I am going to express self-love and create an atmosphere where we can all accept ourselves as the beautiful people that we are.

Here are 6 things that I love about myself:

1. I love my transparency.

If I feel a certain way about a situation, person or experience then I express it straightaway. I do not have filters and I don’t think twice before saying how I feel. My transparency makes me who I am because it means that I am unapologetically human – capable of making mistakes by trusting people with my feelings or secrets but knowing when to accept my mistakes and move on.

2. I love my sensitivity.

I am unable to detach my emotions from others and this is because I genuinely care about people. I am wholly affected by things and I’m not afraid to show it, and sometimes being sensitive means hurting more, feeling more and giving more than others. But it also means loving more and being loved in return, and I would never change that for anyone.

3. I love my strength.

I have experienced more than my years show but I didn’t let it keep me down for too long and this shows me that, if I have faith in myself, I can face anything. My strength allows me to heal and it helps me cope with difficult situations, and this is what allows me to grow. This is what makes me the person that I am, and it is because of my strength that I can write about my experiences and help others heal alongside me.

4. I love my heart.

I carry my heart on my sleeve, not because I don’t value it enough but because I feel that everyone deserves to have a piece. My heart has room for everyone and in return, it wants nothing but to be respected.

5. I love my friendliness.

I am friendly and open with everyone, including strangers. Making conversations with people that I don’t know and learning about their lives makes me feel fulfilled. It helps me understand that we all have a story to tell, we just need to listen close enough and pay attention. Being a friendly person and bringing a smile to another’s face is all that is needed make my day worthwhile.

6. I love that I can openly love myself.

I love how capable I am of loving myself. Regardless of the dark days, of my lowest moments and nights when I felt broken, I still love myself. Regardless of my mistakes and the lessons that I should’ve taken but didn’t. Regardless of my regrets and every time that I let myself down, I still love myself. Regardless of everything that has happened and how bad things got, I still love myself.

Regardless of how everything will change, and I will continue to learn and grow, I will still love myself.