A love letter to yourself
Hello! I would really like to invite everyone to write a love letter to yourself. I did one about 6 months ago, and I looked back on it recently and wow! It was so nice to see how far I have come. And reminding myself of all the little things I love about myself. I'd like to invite you to do the same. You don't have to do it here, you can do it in your journal, your notes app, heck you can even email it to yourself! I am going to write myself a love letter below though, feel free to post yours to this thread!
Hello,
Oh look at you! Look at how far you have come. You never believed you would get here, you thought it would always be the same. The same anxiety, the same grief, the same four walls staring on at you uncaring of the tears on your face. But look. Look around, look at yourself. Doesn't everything seem brighter? Doesn't it all seem so much more vibrant? Doesn't it feel like the world is vibrating, like the universe is looking upon you with such glee, just waiting to see what happens next?
I'm not saying it's all perfect, we both know it isn't. We both know there will be times where the world feels grey again, where the air feels too still; stale. We know those times will come. And whether you believe it or not, I know that you will get through it. You've made it this far.
You have more hope now, I can see it. In the slowly forming smile lines beside your eyes, in the callouses on your finger tips where you picked up your guitar again after it gathered dust for months, in the paint stuck under your nails from the project you never thought you'd get a chance to work on. It's in the ache of your jaw after smiling with your best friend, and in the faded hair dye that just won't stop washing out. It's in the wet bath mat, because you shower every day now, not just when you feel up to it. It's in the tidiness of your bedroom because you've finally realised that you deserve somewhere nice to sleep. It's also in the exhaustion of your hands after a long day, in the frown on your face as you figure out how to solve a problem, it's in the ache of your feet after you've been at work. It's because you know that despite the exhaustion, the frown, the ache, you will be okay. It's because you know that even if the bath mat is dry, even if your room gets messy, even if the callouses on your fingers fade, that you will get up and try it all again. You realise now that there is no permanent state of being, that at some point you will fall down again. But you also know that you are capable and able to get back up and that you will get past whatever hurdle life throws at you.
You've realised that there is more than grief, more than anxiety, more than the four walls of your bedroom looming over you. It took a while, but you're here. And maybe you will feel hopeless in the future, but it will not last forever - you realise that now. You will be okay, you've made it this far. And one day you will look back on this letter and think "If only I had known back then just how much better things were going to get. I thought it was good then? It's even better now".
@Reeselovesgeese
I've never done this before but here goes.
Hey you,
Everything seems to be falling apart now. You just finished having a break down while you're writing this. Right? And now you're rethinking everything in your life that has led you up to this moment. Right? You're scared. And confused. And kicking yourself for thinking you have it all together when you don't. Well... I just wanted to say that I love you. And I will continue to love you. Even if you don't believe it. Even if you don't feel it my love will always be there. I know you'll be okay. And deep down, I know that you know it too. You've come so far and fought so hard to get where you are. Know that your pain is temporary. Like most things in life. But my love for you will last forever. You have nowhere to go but up. I love you. I love you so much. So, promise me you'll love yourself just as much as I love you. So, go forth and burn down the world. (Not literally)
@PureLove245 Thank you so much for sharing! That's a really beautiful piece of writing!
Self love is one of the hardest things we can achieve, it takes a lot of practice and dedication for it to become habit, and it's clear that you are relearning how to love yourself, which is a really big step.
Thank you for sharing, I am so proud of you.
I'm gonna give this one a go. (Also we have almost the same username how cool is that?)
Hey,I can see you're beaten down, and the weight on your shoulders is starting to become unbearable. You've got a lot on your plate at the moment, but you're dealing with it. It won't be easy, it's never been easy, but you've always got through it. You've fallen down, you've hurt me in the process.You come to me at midnight, I sat you down on my sofa and brought you some water and a meal. You have tears in your eyes, sweat on your face and blood on your knees.
I haven't asked about it yet, you think I haven't noticed, or that I dont care. So you ask me, "aren't you going to ask what happened?" And I respond, "so what happened?". And you tell me, you tell me about your mother, about your depression, your anxiety, you tell me that you wanted to give up, but you decided to keep going.
"I'm glad you stayed", I tell you.
"Why?"
"Because if you hadn't, I wouldn't be speaking to you right now. We wouldn't be sat here."
"You mean I wouldn't be sat here"
I pause, and stand up. I roll up my trousers and you see the same wounds on my knees that reside on yours. They've healed, turned a creamy white. I show you all the other scars I have, ones that match yours identically. You ask me how this happened. And I tell you, I tell you that every time you fell, I fell too. That every time you cried, every year you shed, I shared with you.
I tell you that I love you anyways, and when you ask me why I'm not angry after you hurt me so much, I tell you.
"I love you because it's what you need, you dont need my anger or my grief, you dont need me to lecture you about being better. You dont need me to tell you to stop falling down, you need to understand that even if you fall 100 more times, I will always be here to patch up your wounds, because I love you."
You ask, confused, "Why do you love me?"
And I respond, as I always will, with "because you need my love. Because I am you, I have seen all the ugly parts of you and I still love you. Now you just need to learn how to love yourself"
@Reesenotgeese Thanks for sharing! Fantastic username 😆 I'm so glad you took part I this, and it looks like you're showing yourself some love while accepting your flaws. It's good that you can look at yourself and understand that it's okay to have bad days, and it's really wonderful that you can look after yourself at those times!
@Reeselovesgeese
Awh this is so sweet <3 I honestly want to write one as well, but I'm just not sure :')
@LoveMyMoonflowers That's okay 😊 you can take your time, make it as long or short as you want! You don't have to write one, if you want I would recommend just having a think about what you love about yourself! It's not easy to find those things sometimes, and the very first time I ever did this I felt kinda silly 😆
Self love is not an easy thing to do, it's something we learn how to do and practise again and again until it starts to become unconscious. If the question "what do I love about myself?" feels like a bit too much at the moment, try thinking about "what would I like to tell my past self?"
😊
@Reeselovesgeese
Thank you <3
