How to love yourself

The dictionary definition of self-love is regard for one's well being and happiness, but I feel like it's much more than that. Self love is accepting your flaws, wanting to wake up everyday and confidently show the world your smile, it's wanting to live in the skin you were born with. Teenagers face a tremendous amount of judgement and pressure throughout high school and for most it can be damaging. About 44% of girls and 15% of guys attempt to lose weight just to being accepted by the strict guidelines of the perfect teenager the media portrays and society accepts. The pressure to be flawless can lead to low self esteem which is a thinking disorder that causes a person to view themselves as inadequate or not enough. Thinking you aren't enough will destroy your happiness, and that can worsen which can, in turn develop into mental disorders.

A few DOs and DON'Ts to loving yourself:

1- Do what makes you happy: You only live this life once so, you should do what you want while you can

2- Don't care about other people's judgment: If you worry about what other people think you might talk yourself out of it in fear of judged

3- Do surround yourself with positivity and accepting friends: Surrounding yourself with negative people or feelings will kill your vibe

4- Don't compare yourself or style: Comparing yourself to others will discourage you because you think you don't look or act as good as other people

5- Do take care of yourself mentally, physically, and emotionally: If you take care of yourself, you'll feel good and overall feel happier.

6- Don't hurt yourself to appeal to society's standards: The standards people want you to achieve are unrealistic, and you just need to be yourself

By following these basic DOs and DON'Ts to start your self love movement, you will be able to achieve happiness within yourself. Now is an excellent time to start loving yourself especially with the 2017 body positivity movement. People are becoming more accepting of different body types and many, many other things. No matter your gender, sexuality, height, weight, race, or religion, you deserve to be happy and proud to be who you are. As a person, you help society deem what is and isn't “normal,” and therefore should help spread love instead of hate and judgement to create a better place for generations and generations of people to live in. When you love yourself everything in your life no longer feels like a chore, you're doing things for you and your own happiness.

As Lucille Ball said, “Love yourself first and everything else falls into line. You really have to love yourself to get anything done in this world.” Life becomes doable when you love yourself.

Acne, complexion, hair, weight, gender, clothes, and sexuality. What do they all have in common? They're things we as a society choose to judge and use to degrade others. People have the right to be happy in their own skin, yet we choose to point out flaws until they don't want to anymore. It's 2017 and everyone needs to digest that not every person is going to come out skinny with long, flowing hair, and clear skin. So instead of attempting to change everyone and make them the “perfect” Barbie or Ken we let them love themselves.