Higgins - Girls Guide to Loving Yourself: How To Boost Self-Esteem, Increase Self-Love, Let Go of Self-Doubt, and Embrace Who You Are

GIRLS GUIDE TO

LOVING YOURSELF

How To Boost Self-Esteem, Increase Self-Love, Let Go of Self-Doubt, and Embrace Who You Are

Jenn Higgins

For questions, email:

Please consider writing a review!

Just visit: AwesomeReads.org/review

Copyright 2022. Canyon Press. All Rights Reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any other form without written permission from the publisher.

FREE BONUS
GET OUR NEXT BOOK

FOR FREE

JUST CLICK HERE!

For far too long, and for many reasons, women have struggled to love themselves. Unfortunately, this lack of self-love often begins in childhood, when girls start receiving messages that they arent good enough or arent exactly what society tells them they should be. The good news is that you dont have to fall into this trap. You can learn to love yourself; and in fact, learning to love yourself early in your life is vital to your future happiness.

Before you can begin to love yourself, you have to know what self-love is and what it looks like. Self-love is appreciating yourself for who you are and understanding that you arent supposed to be anyone but yourself, even if others tell you differently.

Self-love will look different for everyone because its all about what you need individually to take care of yourself. For you, it might mean putting yourself first, being nice to yourself, or talking to and about yourself with love. For others, it might mean setting healthy boundaries, forgiving themselves when they make a mistake, or learning to be true to themselves about what they want in life.

The term self-love is often synonymous with self-care and requires us to get back to the basics of what we need, both physically and emotionally, to be able to accept ourselves as we are right that minute. We need to listen to our bodies, which might be telling us to get more sleep or to take a break from exercise. We might need to cut back our working or studying hours and do something fun. Or we might need to indulge in a sweet treat weve been denying ourselves.

Self-care is the practice of doing things that are healthy for your own well-being. This practice is as unique as you are and while it might include other people, it doesnt have to. Sometimes, learning to practice self-care is the best way to start loving yourself. After all, if you love yourself, youre going to enjoy spending time with yourself. You might even become your own best friend!

Women in particular strive for perfection, but its often a skewed view of perfection, one thats unattainable. Not exercising for a day, putting your studying on the back burner for a couple of hours, eating a couple of cookies: Were told these things are not allowed if we want to be perfect. But thats someone elses idea of perfection, and if were trying to live up to other peoples ideals, we will spend our lifetime chasing someone elses happiness instead of our own.

All people, men and women, are constantly inundated with messages that they arent good enough unless they fit into narrow definitions of beauty and personality. But women and girls receive these messages more often, and societys beauty and personality standards are much higher for them than they are for men.

Levels of self-love among girls have always been lower than they should be, but with the proliferation of social media, they have plummeted to all-time lows. Daily, girls receive the message they arent good enough through the filtered and photoshopped photos they see online and in popular fashion magazines and e-zines.

In these publications and elsewhere, girls are told that a body type that only 5% of women worldwide actually possess is the standard to which they should aspire. They get the message that if they starve themselves to get that thin, undergo serious surgery to get breast implants, and wear revealing clothing, society will reward them with money, love, and fame.

Also, according to these impossibly high standards, girls should be happy and funny and witty at all times. If they arent, they are considered unlikeable, mean, or bossy and not at all feminine. Of course, thats not the case and women can and do have as many moods as men; theyre just expected not to show those moods.

Part of this expectation comes from the traditional view that women are supposed to care for others, so if theyre not always happy and smiling, theyre not making others happy either. Of course, women dont just exist to please others, but despite all the progress women have made toward being treated as individuals rather than extensions of men, this belief is still pervasive in society.

The truth is that girls should never have to sacrifice their own well-being and happiness to please others in any capacity. Certainly, with the near-constant barrage of messages telling them otherwise, this is much easier said than done. And its not just the images they see and the almost worshipful attitude society has for celebrities that can derail self-love. All it takes is one snide comment from a group of gossipy friends to cause girls to begin questioning themselves and the way they look or think.

Fortunately, there is an antidote to the poison that is societys unreasonable expectations for womens appearance and personality, and it isnt avoiding all media that perpetuates these standards (although limiting exposure to social media and other entertainment publications will help). The solution is to teach girls like you from an early age how to love themselves and not settle for less than they deserve.

When you love someone, you treat that person with compassion and care. You give them gifts that make them feel loved and you speak to them kindly (most of the time). You want them to be happy so youll do what you can to make that happen.

Loving yourself is no different.

We are so much more critical of ourselves than we are of anybody else that we may end up thinking were not worthy of love. But that couldnt be further from the truth. We deserve to treat ourselves like any other person we love and care for. When we practice self-love, we gain a multitude of benefits that we cant get any other way.

Greater Happiness

Loving yourself leads to a higher sense of well-being, which in turn, makes you feel happier. You no longer have to compare yourself to others or strive for something you dont really want because youre being true to your own desires and feelings. You arent trying and failing to live up to some impossible standard that wasnt even yours to begin with.

Your relationships with others will be better because when you treat yourself the way you expect others to treat you, there wont be any room for disrespect, mistreatment, or toxicity. If someone doesnt respect your boundaries, you will love yourself enough to release that person from your life, thereby making your life happier.

Much of our anxiety and stress come from the fear of failure and not living up to others expectations. Loving yourself means living up to your own expectations, which are really the only ones you can control anyway. Knowing that your self-worth is not dependent upon others opinions and expectations removes the elements of anxiety and stress from your shoulders. Without anxiety and stress, your body feels and performs better. And if your body feels good, you feel good.

Stronger Resilience

Everyone experiences challenges throughout life, and how we respond to those challenges is a reflection of self-love. Experts have shown that the more people loves themselves, the more capable they are of coming out stronger on the other side of a hardship, and those who love themselves generally rebound more quickly as well.