You are strong. You are worthy. You are loved.
These are words of encouragement you should always tell yourself. As humans, we always seek for encouragement and motivation from others. We all love to hear compliments from those who support us, including me. However, we cannot always rely on others to give us that hype talk all the time and sometimes you're going to be that person to hype yourself. YOU should be your #1 supporter, your best hype-person, your own motivator. Why? Because if you don't realize how special and amazing you are, then how can you genuinely express that amazing-ness to the world?
Know your worth. Know your own strengths and weaknesses. Know your ability to endure and adapt to whatever obstacles life puts you through. Learn to appreciate yourself as a human being who deserves to be in this world. Learn to accept yourself in every phase in life. Learn to love yourself before you can express that love to others. Self-love and self-care are NOT selfish. They are concepts that are healthy for your mental health and wellbeing.
If you're having trouble on being your own hype-person, then may I suggest some tips:
Tips
Stare at yourself in front of the mirror and start saying the words in the beginning: "You are strong. You are worthy. You are loved." If you can say these words to your friends and community to encourage them, I believe you can most definitely say them to yourself. After saying the phrases (also feel free to change it up), replace the "you" with "I." There's just something so powerful when you say "I." It can be weird and dumb at first, but the more you say your words of encouragement the more you're going to acknowledge them and take them to heart. One thing I did every morning was smile at myself and it helped uplift my mood and start the day right. Self-talks in front of a mirror helps so much with becoming your best hype-person and realizing your worth so much more than you think.
Write a letter or record a message to your future self. I made personalized videos for my friends and talked about how amazing they are and how they impacted my life. Recently, I re-watched the videos and I could just imagine how empowering and meaningful it is to go back to the video whenever they're feeling down or not themselves. I realized I would want a video like that with a message to myself of how strong and amazing I am (I wish I had wider range of vocabulary). And then if I ever feel out-of-place, I can always refer back to that message. You can do the same. Write yourself a letter or even more challenging record a video with a message to yourself. In this message, remind yourself of the struggles you've been through and how you much stronger you are because of them. Tell yourself what you would want to hear and make sure it's true to you. It's not going to work if you don't mean what you say. Then, after finishing that message, store it in a safe and loved place so that it is easy to access. Watch it whenever you feel like you need it.
Make or listen to a playlist dedicated to empowerment. Music is such a powerful thing to ever exist because it helps us get through shit. Feeling sad? There's a playlist for that. Feeling like a boss-ass b**? There are songs to make you feeeeel that. I have created a Spotify playlist titled "for you." It is mostly dedicated for the ladies who need a confidence boost, a reminder that they are worthy and loved, and a feeling of a badass. The songs are carefully selected to listen to the lyrics because that is where the true meaning is held. Tatiana Manaois wrote in her song titled "Yesterday Everyday Always," "When you go through changes; Hope you love you the same way; Love yesterday everyday; Love yourself always, yeah mmm; Cause everyone's changing; With the same in their way in; So love yesterday everyday;Love yourself always, yeah mmm mmm mm." Other songs include "Girl On Fire" by Alicia Keys and "Run the World (Girls)" by Beyoncé. I encourage you to give this playlist a listen or find or create a playlist that is dedicated to empowering you.
Add positivity to your social media feeds by following accounts dedicated to sharing encouraging and positive messages. These accounts post daily reminders that you should take into heart as you scroll through your social media apps. I have a Pinterest board full of positive and motivational quotes that I look back to whenever I need those reminders. This is convenient because we are always on our phones so by adding a spark of positivity it creates a consistent impact on our mental health.
There's such little time to indulge in negativity through self-doubt and self-shame. Why waste your energy like that? Put that energy into self-love and self-improvement. Make it a lifestyle to better yourself so that you can shineee in front of others who bring you down and your problems. I think that by knowing your worth and being that person who can motivate themselves you can go through life challenges a lot smoother.
Shine on. Love yourself yesterday, everyday, always.