Tuesday, September 19, 2017

If You Can't Like Yourself, No One Else Will Either




We all have a story.   It’s fascinating to me, that most of us don’t know someone else’s WHOLE story.   A lot of us like to keep certain chapters hidden or unknown to other people. We like to tuck those tragedies, hurts, and lonely parts away; for only us to see, know, dwell on, and remember.

But when we do that, we can’t move on. We can’t heal. We can’t become WHOLE.

Some of us don’t even want to.  We don’t know HOW to. We don’t feel we deserve to move on from that spot of deep hurt and pain.

A lot of us are good at acting happy. We give to others, we act cheerful, we encourage, and we show no signs of the unhappiness lurking just beneath our surface.

Or so we think.

The thing is….it shows anyways.  Unhappiness always shows up in our face, in our attitude, in our actions. Somewhere.

If you can’t like yourself – if you can’t forgive yourself – if you can’t find yourself valuable…. it’s hard for others to like you, forgive you, value you, too.

We often sabotage ourselves. What we want the most, we push away. What we need the most, we refuse.  Loneliness and isolation become our friend.

There is no pressure in isolation. No pulling on us to face things we don’t want to acknowledge, or face.  There is a certain sense of comfort in being alone, even if it’s the last thing we need.

We can think we’re good at fooling the world. But we’re not.  We can think we will find happiness or contentment in something we are relying on (which may be different for everyone) – but we won’t.   We can think placing boundaries and walls up in our lives will protect us – but they don’t.

What’s inside still lives inside. What hurts still hurts.

You have so much to give. You have so much potential. Don’t let whatever that hurt is, win over you.  Don’t let it mislead you into living a life less than the one you deserve. 

There is far too much good in this world, and in people, to shut yourself out from the love, the laughter, the blessings, and the richness of relationships.

FACE that hurt. Claim it as a part of your story. And turn it into a strength.

Learn to like who you are – even with those unfortunate moments as part of your story. Respect what you’ve been through, and empower yourself to turn those hurts into testimonies of victory.


You don’t have to be perfect. And people will still like you. You just have to find yourself worthy of being likeable, too.

4 comments:

Joey Lynn Resciniti said...

Amen! I really think we're all afraid to share our stories because we're trained not to complain. We're trained to always recognize that what's happened to us isn't as bad as what's happened to so and so. But it's empowering to own it all and move on. Almost makes me feel giddy!

I loved this post!

Dionna said...

Thanks, Joey! I'm glad you loved this post. I think sometimes we think what happens to us is WORSE than what happens to others. Unless we talk, we don't know someone else out there has walked through it, too.

Rebekah D. Author said...

How'd you get inside my head?
Seriously, this is EXACTLY what I needed today. Thank you so much.

Commenting as part of my challenge: rebekahdevall.wordpress.com/challenge/

Dionna said...

Oh, I'm so glad Rebekah! I didn't get in your head - ha ha - but God knew what you needed to read at this moment.