To be able to love others, you need to learn to love yourself first. You are only able to feel content and happy in life when you are able to accept who you are, embrace your weaknesses, and conquer your fears.

Whether you want to build an empathetic relationship with others or find peace in life, it all starts by opening yourself up to the idea of self-love. Here are some ways you can discover self-love and embrace everything that comes with it:
1. Write down things you like about yourself
Start by writing down things that you appreciate about yourself and things that you would like to change. Life isn’t easy and is complicated with many disappointments but if you don’t let go of the bad parts, you’ll never accept and love yourself. Take one bad habit a month and try to get rid of it. With every passing day, you’ll start loving yourself more and more.
2. Don’t focus on getting approval from others
Everyone’s life comes with their own set of problems, for which they have to bear the consequences. Rather than being concerned about what others think about you, focus on how you are going to get through a difficult day. It’s only one life that you get and it absolutely isn’t worth wasting on being approved by others around you.
3. Stay away from negative people
Keep your distance from people who don’t want you to succeed. It might difficult to recognize them at first, so take your time and analyse their behaviour. If there’s a particular person who sounds jealous when you talk about something good that happened to you or always gives you negative comments, then that person may not be someone you should have in your life.
4. Forgive your past mistakes
The only way to truly move on to the better things in life is by forgiving yourself for your past mistakes. Instead of dwelling in the past and feeling guilty for all the things that you did wrong, learn from your mistakes and make sure they aren’t repeated. You should also be prepared for the mistakes that you might make in the future and make sure you let them go as well. After all, to err is human.
5. Do something that makes you happy
You can truly appreciate yourself and your life when you are doing something that makes you happy. For that to happen, understand the difference between gratifying exhaustion and empty fatigue. Gratifying exhaustion comes from chasing something you feel passionate about and taking a step towards your goal. On the other hand, empty fatigue is an outcome of doing something that isn’t inspiring but you are doing it anyway. Don’t spend the precious years of your life doing something you don’t want to do. It might take time to quit what you are currently doing but once you are through with it, everything will be possible.
6. Create your own path before helping others
Being a person who enjoys helping others is a great quality but don’t keep their priorities above yours. Help someone out when you are satisfied with what you are doing with the life you have got. Helping others by sacrificing isn’t the way to go. Lend someone money when you don’t have any financial problems. Give your time to help someone only when you have enough time to finish up your own work.
Follow your heart and accept who you are. You will find this whole new person in yourself who is worth all the love and care.

Ritika Tiwari
Freelance Writer/ Blogger/ Content Strategist