I love me!

I think this is a pretty common topic for anybody across the board. It's really important to love yourself. I say that because although I am a very self-confident person, I realize that not everybody has that same confidence. Whether someone has made them feel bad about themselves or they are too critical of their own flaws, there are people out there, girls in particular, that struggle with self- confidence. I'm not saying that males don't struggle with this issue, I can just relate to it from a female point of view for obvious reasons...

We all have flaws, but what I learned while I was younger, is that you have to take those flaws and love them! I will use body image as a specific example. Everybody has something that they don't like about their body, even the most confident people. The difference is learning to love and embrace those flaws and becoming accepting of yourself no matter what. People want to change themselves so bad and there are billion dollar industries (plastic surgery) that feed off of those insecurities. What you have to learn is that your flaws make you who you are, they make you YOU!

If you can't love yourself past your own flaws, whether it has to do with your body image or just what you think of yourself in general, then no one else will love you. There are people out there who are so insecure about themselves that they feed off of others' insecurities to temporarily make themselves feel better and it's just sad. In feeling good about yourself, you give someone else the strength and courage to look on the inside and find something good about them as well.

We all need to find something positive about ourselves and let it shine. And the things we don't like, we need to take hold of it and just own it, learn to love it. When we do that, we free ourselves from our own limitations of what we think we can or can't do or what we should and should not look like. Every one, every body is different. Love yourself for who you are!

~LaDai