My Journey to Self Love
Often in our busy schedule, we forget who we really are. Our lives have become so monotonous, we are always running after our career, money, and relationships that we forget the real us.
Going with the pace of the busy world, we hardly think about what we really want. How many of us praise ourselves? How many of us do actually appreciate ourselves for working so hard?
We are so busy self-criticizing ourselves, we just want to be like everyone. We crumble to the societal pressure that we have to become the best. And when our hard work does not show results we end up blaming ourselves that maybe somewhere we went wrong. Maybe we are not lucky that even after so much hard work our result is a failure. We blame ourselves that we are not good enough. This is the reason for most of us going into depression. But what we forget is that each one of us has a unique identity.
We fail to love our soul and our life that has been working so hard. Why is self-love so hard? Because we look at ourselves from the perspective of others. We fail to listen to our inner voice and listen to the voice of the people and the society. We stop doing what we love and instead we do what everyone is doing. Nobody can love us more than ourselves. We make mistakes, we learn from them.
The journey to self-love was not easy for me. But, once I accepted the fact that only I am responsible for the choices I make, I have realized how beautiful my life is. I used to daydream a lot, but somewhere in the chaos, it disappeared. A failed relationship, a failing career, and fat-shaming myself hurt me. I forgot what I was really capable of. Then, music healed me. Listening to the song of the Korean boy band BTS, I started to realize how beautiful my life is. I did not understand their language, so I read the lyrics, and understood how each and every word penned by them is encouraging us to love ourselves. Their songs inspired me and every day I told myself you are the best. You have to love yourself. Learn to appreciate and accept yourself. Learning from mistakes has made me realize that I am a precious person. I made mistakes, I made wrong decisions but I am who I am. I love myself.
Kim Nam- Joon, the leader of the Korean boy band BTS in his speech at the United Nations in 2018 said, “Maybe I made a mistake yesterday, but yesterday’s me is still me.
I am who I am with all my faults. Tomorrow I may be a bit wiser, and that’s me too. These faults and mistakes are what I am, making up the brightest star in the constellation of my life. I have come to love myself for who I was, for who I am, and who I hope to become.” His speech tells us how important it is to accept ourselves for who we really are. It is not possible in a day, but it is also not impossible.
Now, when I am writing about self-love, I remember these lines
“ I’m the one I should love in this world
Shining me, the precious soul of mine
I finally realized
So I love me
Not so perfect but so beautiful”
These lines are from the song EPIPHANY sung and written by Kim Seok-jin of the boy band BTS.
The lyrics tell us that, each one of us is precious and special. If we do not love and appreciate ourselves, how can we expect that other people will love us? We always come first than other things. We do not need anyone’s permission to love ourselves. Love, relationships, money success will come and go, but if we fail to appreciate ourselves in this chaotic world, we will someday crumble to the pressures of society as well as the pressure we give ourselves to be the best.
All I want to express is each and every day we must try to appreciate ourselves for working hard. Tomorrow will be better than today. We are working hard so we deserve to gift ourselves for our hard work, listen to our inner voice…life will become so much fun. Being ourselves in this chaotic world is a great accomplishment in itself. We do not need a special day to celebrate self-love, because every day is special. So, let us celebrate self-love and take time to look at ourselves not from the perspective of others, but from our own perspective.
* The views in this writing are my own and are not intended to hurt anyone.
