What do you love about yourself?
For many of us, myself included, I could very easily list 10 things I didn’t love about myself, before I could even begin to comment on one thing which I do love.
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Yet, when it come to family and friends or even that random girl I met in the club bathrooms one time, I LOVE to compliment others. Loving others comes so much more naturally, but when we are asked to love ourselves…that feels a lot harder.
“As humans we are born with a ‘Negativity Bias’ - an evolutionary function which means that we are much more likely to cling onto the negatives in life rather than the positives.”
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Why? As humans we are born with a ‘Negativity Bias’ - an evolutionary function which means that we are much more likely to cling onto the negatives in life rather than the positives. By paying more attention to the bad things around us - danger and threats - it meant we were more likely to survive, a way for the brain to try to keep us safe.
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There’s no doubt that this way of thinking remains helpful in some situations, but it’s not as useful as it once was. Particularly when it makes it harder for us to have self compassion and learn to accept ourselves as we are.
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A compliment from somebody else can make you smile and even turn around your whole day for the better but saying something positive about yourself…well, some people might even say that is arrogant. In fact, it’s considered more ‘normal’ to be negative towards ourselves and our bodies. There’s something wrong here, right?
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But it really is OK to call yourself beautiful or smile at yourself in the mirror. By loving yourself, you will be able to more clearly see your own potential, to more easily forgive yourself and avoid a spiral of negative emotions.
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Start noticing the good things about yourself. No matter what you’ve been telling yourself up until this point, you definitely have positive traits, which the people around you already love, so start to believe in them yourself. And, the next time you’re picking yourself apart in the mirror - work on fixing that negative self talk. Don’t let your mind bully your body, you’re beautiful as you are.