TL;DR – when you love yourself, others will love you too.

You might ask, “What does that even mean?”.

I know, in some peculiar sense it doesn’t make sense. Why would we love ourselves if others don’t. Why me? Why should I care?

Because when we love ourselves, we find purpose. We understand how to help others, how to love others, how to care for others. We find reason.

It’s human nature – and in some sense part of life – to face difficult challenges in our lives. There are (too many) times where we’re faced with life’s problems, and we don’t have direction. What if I don’t achieve my goals? What if I fail? What if….

And I agree. There are no simple answers. All that we can do is put our best foot forward, wear one shoe at a time, and gear up to face our fears and challenges.

This is what allows us to overcome our demons, our battles and our fears. We realize after facing these these challenges that nothing else could be worse.

For those who may have lost loved ones or who battled extreme trauma in their lives understand this. And if you haven’t, you may have experienced in other ways (e.g. volunteering).

It’s at these moments we manifest ourselves, our characters. We find out that we want to take care of others, and that means first taking care of ourselves.

We must love ourselves.

When we begin to love ourselves, and we tell ourselves that we matter, life finds meaning.

It’s the long game though. One day at a time.

Rather than feeling sad about the things we haven’t done, be happy and fortunate for the things you have accomplished. There’s always something.

Remember you were scared of attending that workshop because of your fear of meeting new people? What’s to lose? Give it a shot :).

It’s calming to know others have been through our suffering

We’re not alone. It may feel like it at times, but be assured there’s someone out there we can speak with, to both sympathize and empathize with.

So love yourself, and others will too. We’re right there with you.