JOURNAL PROMPT: A LOVE LETTER TO YOURSELF
A couple months ago a friend of mine asked how to love herself. There is no answer and unfortunately it's not as easy as “just do it, just love yourself.” It’s a bit uncomfortable, and takes a lot of patience, but here I ask you to show some appreciation for yourself, even if for the smallest of things.
So often we find ourselves wishing to be loved the way we love. It’s natural for us, as humans, to crave emotional intimacy and long to feel understood, loved, connected to. We wish to hear someone say those soft and delicate, heart-warming words to us as we would say to others that are dear to our heart. But we’re only fooling ourselves because what has made us think we couldn’t show ourselves the same, pure love? It’s within us, we should allow ourselves to feel at least some of it. It’s in our being. It’s your love. I wouldn’t say I necessarily love every aspect of myself because well… who does but I know I owe myself some room for self acceptance. My friends would deem me the confident friend, and I’m not so sure if that's true or if I’m just really great at acting. I practically live by “fake it til you make it”. I’ve also learned that no one really pays much attention to you anyway because everyone is so hyper focused on themselves, and it’s the truth. I always tell my friends when they’re nervous or embarrassed “who cares, what is their opinion going to do to you? Why would it matter? When will you see these people again?” It's always followed by a “you’re right”. And I know I am. It’s quite difficult to practice, yes, because we’ve gone against it for so long but it’s so freeing and whether you choose to believe or not, you’re deserving of it- at the very least. Love yourself, because somebody has to. So here, I invite you to shamelessly write yourself a love letter. Say the words to yourself that you’ve been dying for someone else to tell you. Don’t think too much about it. And then read it over sometimes, keep it in a safe place and read it on bad days, when you need extra warmth to keep you going. Because ultimately, you’re the one who knows exactly what to say if you think about it. Feel free to read mine below as an example, but definitely use your own take on it, personalize this idea to however feels the best. It’s kind of raw and frankly almost too personal to be sharing mine, but I’m going to anyway because I shamelessly do love myself, and you should too. Because who the hell cares?
Dear Amy,
Honestly, I’m happy to wake up as you do everyday. I’m honored I get to hear all of the thoughts in your mind - unfiltered. But I’m also happy we are good (usually) at detecting which of our thoughts aren’t true. I love our imagination, how it's so colorful and we can picture things so vividly. I think it's kind of cute that we get a small red dot next to our right eye when we cry, making it impossible to hide from people who know us best. I love how you’ve grown into yourself mentally, emotionally, physically and spiritually. You’re committed to being a better version of yourself, not only for you, but for everyone you care about. You always want to help/ save others around you, because you feel their pain for them, but try to remember to give yourself room to breathe. You can’t save the world by yourself, no matter how well you think you’d do as POTUS haha. I also am really happy you take the time to learn from your mistakes. Everyone seems to find us easy to confide in, and I think that came from all of the internal work you’ve committed to. Growing up our family would always say we had a big mouth and couldn't keep secrets. Friends would say we were selfish, and those words hurt so bad to hear but I’m proud of you for working through that and now being the most selfless, loyal and best secret keeper we have ever been. I love how we love love, but we do have to learn how to stop running away from it. I love our style, whatever that may be depending on your mood of the day. Continue being versatile, I think it’s cool. I love laughing with you, especially when the laughs turn silent, that’s when you know it was really funny and that feeling is my favorite. Even if we’re laughing at our own jokes half of the time. I think it was smart of you to ultimately pick green as your favorite color because duh.. it's everywhere, it's literally grass and that way you could find a piece of happiness everywhere. But you still can’t say jewelry properly. I know that’s a tongue twister for you, we’ll work on it. It’s also goofy of you to never know the lyrics to any song no matter how many times you’ve heard it- and that does not stop you from singing it - terribly may I add. It’s funny how it’s always seemed impossible for you to choose a favorite movie so you gave up even trying to think of one and just chose Coraline one day and ran with it. I mean fair enough, it is a pretty great movie if I say so myself. I love how you can sleep anywhere, at any time. Sleep may be your best talent honestly. It was funny this summer when you started saying that you were “practicing dreaming” and were not joking. I love how in every new place you go to, you find a new sense of belonging, imagining yourself living there. I could go on for days about the little things I love about you, but really, I just want you to know that I love you and I got your back through everything. It's me and you girl, forever and ever. I’m excited to see where we go and all the amazing things we do, but in the meantime keep being your cute self, you’re doing amazing and I’m proud of you.
Love always,
Me
P.S. i think its cute when you say random little facts you know at the most random of times