Love Yourself

"You can search the entire universe for who is more deserving of your love and affection than you are
yourself, and that person is not to be found anywhere. You, as much as anybody
in the entire universe deserve your love and affection." -Dhyan
Chand (Indian Hockey Player)

I met this girl on a trip to Delhi. She was a beautiful girl, her hair
lustrous, I told her that anybody would be envious of her beautiful smile. And
she blushed. One evening she told me that she has no love for her long and
shiny hair. She was thankful, but never admired it for reasons unknown.
She explained, "her smile was just to hide the storms gone by."

That day I realized that I wasn't alone this world who face the problem of
loving oneself. How much she hated her skin that people could only read it's
colour before peeping into the pureness of her thoughts.  Of course, she
loved and admired her every part, but the love for herself, just like her body,
was never whole. She smiled for every other person in the world, I wondered
when was last she smiled and appreciated herself.

"If self-love would be a song, I would sing it all day long"
Priyanka Verma

As I  am growing from a little girl into the women I always wanted to
be, I embrace the journey that took me from 18-year-old innocent girl to the
raging 25-year-youthful-woman.  This little journey changes a whole lot of
things- from birthdays to bills, from pocket-money to the first salary, from being
a homie to being self-dependent. From being updated on social media to being
updated about surroundings and the self, from 200 friends to a handful to laugh
with. Much of the things change in life. But one thing that remains with you
after all the battles fought and all the dreams conquered, all the people that
faded and other hundreds that emerged-amongst all, one thing that stood the
ravages of time and perhaps one the best lessons learned was that of -
"SELF-LOVE."

When I say battles fought, I count the ones that left deep scars on just not
your skin, but also somewhere deep in your mind. The one that lasted longer
than you thought, and the ones that you fought with yourself. When I say dreams
conquered - I speak of the ones that you were on the verge of giving up. The
ones that hurt you like broken pieces of glass, the dreams that took away the
peace and landed you on the island of challenges, the ones that made you restless
even in your sleep. People, let's face it, whom you always counted on and ones
who didn't deserve a bit of it.

Loving yourself can hard sometimes, especially when you have what the world calls "Scars". You let the world influence so much on yourself that you begin treating it like one, without even realising it's not just the scar but also the title of battles won. Of all those times when they mocked at your accent, and you have held yourself upright and laughed together because you understand if they would have been you, they wouldn't be any different. You've carried the past that burnt you, and you are carrying your future, you carry dreams that you embrace and you carry darkness. You are both the positives and negatives. Half of the world lives on claiming positives and the other half blaming themselves for their negatives. What lies in the midst people often fail to understand is "KINTSUGI"  that cracks too, can be filled, that it's from where the light enters, that it's what makes you shine. 
Fill it with diamonds of S-E-L-F-L-O-V-E. 

Some words to live by:-

*Don’t beat yourself up, that will erode your self-esteem. Be a kind and a
supportive friend of yourself instead.

*Ask yourself: How would my friend/parent support me and help me in this
situation? Speak to yourself kindly and guide yourself like a little kid. After
all,  you deserve self-affection.

*Stop blaming yourself for your failures and fucked up life. Stop running
after success, start building yourself. Success is just an apex, entire
journey, the failures, and the mistakes you made are the things that shape you
to reach the top.

*With the crisis, comes opportunity. But important is to build
yourself every day so that when opportunity knocks, you don't stand there
empty-handed.