You owe yourself the love you freely give to others

You invest years giving people with all your heart. When they do things wrong, you forgive them, when they forget that they are worth something, you remind them they are important. You give kindness as if your heart was a bottomless well.

But it almost always seems that when you have your own needs, you hold back. You become hard on yourself and scold yourself for little mistakes. You force yourself to go on when you are exhausted and you expect perfection from you but not from those around.

You'd be surprised, it's incredible how easy it is to make the attempts to love everyone else and how difficult it is to extend that love to your own self. You were trained and it slowly got imprinted in you that self care is selfishness, sleeping or taking a rest in the day is lazy. But none of that is love, it's more like guilt packaged in neglect. Real love for yourself is necessary. It recognizes that your heart needs the same kindness you freely give to friends. Real love recognizes that you can't keep sipping from a cup you never allow yourself to fill.

Try to remember the words of encouragement you tell a hurting friend. You tell them everything will be alright, you tell them "give yourself some time, it'll all work out" . You're so quick to motivate them but how often do tell that to yourself? When did you most recently look in a mirror and tell yourself, "It is all right, you'll be fine, you are doing what you can".

Rather you spend time drowning in anxiety while you give pep talk to others.

You are a human being, you are worthy of patience, worthy of forgiveness and worthy of the same comfort you professionally give to those around you. They call you a good person for doing that for them, but do you do it for yourself?

Loving yourself puts your name on the list of those you have mercy on, those you care for and those you try to help or comfort. Self love will make you defend yourself at the same level you've always done on behalf of all the rest. You take the same tenderness, the same sweet talk, the same love you have so freely given.

Sometimes, give yourself a break too, allow yourself to rest too. Allow yourself to be imperfect and still be good enough for you. The love you project out to the world must first begin within the confines of your very own body. You are owed the love that you've given, unconditionally, all along. You are owed compassion and peace.

Don't give it all to others and forget about you.

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