Love who you are and the world will love you back

Should you love yourself more than others? Yes! Love yourself and the world will adjust. There are 1000 reasons to love yourself if you sincerely think about it. I know you must have heard this at some point in your adult life but this time around, it has to mean something to you.

As a woman in a patriarchal society like Nigeria, if you don’t love yourself and show others how much you love yourself, they will treat you like crap and expect to get away with it. If you don’t love yourself, who will do that for you?

If you love yourself as a woman, you won’t tolerate disrespect. You won’t allow people walk all over you because of your gender. You won’t give any man the opportunity to treat you like a doormat because he feels like he’s doing you a favour by being in your life.

You should learn how to love yourself when you don’t know how. You deserve all the love you give to other people. If you learn how to love yourself and be confident of who you are, you won’t allow people walk all over you.

If you are a woman living in Nigeria, you need to love yourself more than anyone else. Learn how to love yourself first. You should love your neighbor as yourself not more than you love you. Love yourself first before loving others.

As a woman, the first step you must take in loving yourself completely is accepting who you are and how you look. I know this is not easy because there are some parts of your body that you don’t like.

I don’t like my teeth because for as long as I can remember, they are brown. I can’t forget how many products, concoctions and powders my mother bought for me as a child just to whiten my teeth. None of them worked.

It took me time to accept my teeth. It took me time to smile while my mates were smiling. It took me time not to feel bad anytime someone points out that my teeth are yellow and ugly.

This afternoon, I was exchanging pleasantries with someone at work and smiled and he said: Look at your bad teeth, why do you like flashing them so much?” I replied: Look at your stomach like a six month old pregnant woman’s own. Why do you like showing them by wearing fitted shirts?”He left me alone.

The second step is not wishing you are someone else. That’s not healthy for your self esteem. Don’t wish you were in another person’s skin. Don’t do that. You don’t know the secret pain that person is hiding under their smiles.

You are you and nothing can be more special than being your unique self and embracing your individuality. You are scared. You are beautiful. You are one of a kind. You are the best because no one can be you.

Woman, love who you are and the world will love you back just the way you are. Don’t allow insecure people make you feel bad about yourself, your body and your appearance. Don’t give them the room to project their insecurities on you.

Putting yourself last and trying so hard to please everybody will drain you emotionally, physically and psychologically, this is why you should love yourself first. When you learn to love yourself, you begin to live a better and liberated life.

You should love yourself because you have reasons to live for yourself. If you love yourself, you love others. If you don’t love yourself, how can you extend love to your neighbor? You should lead by example first.

Love yourself and others. Love your neighbor like yourself not more than you love yourself. The logic of loving yourself is not selfish; it is based on self preservation.