Accepting, Awareness, and Happiness

I came to another important realization this weekend, which I think my last blog had a lot to do with. I am happy. Happier than I think I've ever been. After my last semester of school being so awful, that surprises me. But it's the truth. I am not like perma-grin happy. But down to earth completely content. You want to know what I think makes that difference? That makes me happy when before I was struggling to be that way? It's because I finally gave myself permission to love myself. Permission to accept my faults and flaws as part of what makes me unique, even as I still work to change the ones that I can. Permission to be okay with it when I'm not perfect. Permission to stop taking other people's problems on as my own. But most of all, I gave myself permission to look at how far I have come, rather than how far I have left to go. And that makes a big difference. There are still a lot of things in my life that could be better. People who I wish would change, decisions I wish they would make differently, but it doesn't matter, because I'm happy with me, and that is the biggest part of the journey.

So once again, I dare my readers, I dare you to learn to love yourself. I dare you to not only accept your flaws, but to love yourself for them. Dare to let go of the problems that other people try to put on you, dare to push past them dumping their low self-esteem onto you because you know that you are worth more than that. Dare to find out who you are and love that person even as you continue to try and become who you want to be.