You may have heard it said that you can’t love others until you truly love yourself first. The problem is that many of us are taught that loving ourselves means being vain or conceited, so we learn to downplay our brilliance. Not only do we downplay it, we eventually stop recognizing it altogether.
At its core, low self-esteem simply means not liking yourself very much – and obviously, not liking yourself definitely means you don’t love yourself. You may think that this would only affect you, but it actually has a powerful impact on everyone you touch.
Everything you say and do stems from the perception you hold of yourself. If you don’t like yourself or love yourself, you probably can’t recognize your own talents and abilities. And if you don’t recognize those talents and abilities, you will hold back using them to their fullest possible extent, which means you will give less to the world than you could.
Sadly, all of the people you could have touched in your lifetime will not receive the gift of love, insight, encouragement, compassion or guidance that would have helped them not only improve their own lives but would have helped them reach out to help others too.
Building your self-esteem is a powerful way to increase the impact you have on the world around you. When you feel good about yourself, you are more confident. You are more loving toward others. You feel inspired and eager to make a difference, and you don’t hesitate to take action to make a difference.
When you truly love yourself, you will find that people, resources and opportunities are magnetically drawn to you from every possible direction and you become much more empowered to live a life that contributes immensely to the world in endless ways.
Learning to love yourself isn’t as hard as it may seem – simply start by liking yourself. Make a list of your positive qualities. Think about the good things you have accomplished in the past.
Say to yourself regularly, “I’m a good person. I have a lot to offer the world. People like me, and I like myself.â€
Over time, liking yourself will gently and naturally turn into genuine, healthy self-love