Take a closer look at finding self worth. Do you take care of you like you’re precious and valuable?
Would you use your 60″ flat screen TV as a ping pong table? Take your newborn baby skydiving? Scratch a mural into your brand new car with a rock?
The answer’s a no-brainer: of course not!
But ask this question: why not?
Because you value those things.
Things like a TV or a car cost a lot of money.
A newborn baby is precious and needs to be carefully looked after.
When something is truly precious or valuable to us, we take care of it.
Most of us can apply this concept to a wedding dress. Or a precious family heirloom. Or a luxury car. Or even a $600 iPhone. We take care of these things because we believe they’re valuable.
But what about yourself?
Do you take care of you like you’re precious and valuable?
If you’re like most people, the answer is… not really.
Finding Self Worth: The Secret to… Everything!
Why do you have trouble starting healthy habits?
Why are you stuck in toxic relationships?
Why don’t you take the steps needed to get where you want to go in life?
Why do you allow people to take advantage of you or push you around?
The are volumes and volumes written on these subjects. Some of them can get pretty complex.
But I believe the answer is far more simple than we think.
I struggled with these questions for most of my life. I made poor decisions that impacted my life in a negative way. Sometimes in a seriously messed up way. And I was always left asking… why?
I figured there was something wrong with me. In fact, that was my answer for years: I stink as a person.
Turns out, that wasn’t the answer. It was the problem.
I was stuck in a cycle of not viewing myself as valuable. As precious. As irreplaceable. And so my decisions lined up with the way I viewed myself.
Because I didn’t see myself as valuable, precious, and irreplaceable, I didn’t treat myself that way.
It took many, many years and many mistakes for me to finally realize the underlying problem: I wasn’t viewing myself in the right way.
Since then, finding self worth has become a daily goal of mine. And it has changed my life in a profound way. I am so much more at peace with my daily decisions. I am able to make the right priorities. I am capable of saying “no” to things that don’t belong in my life, and saying “yes” to the things that are good for me.
What is finding self worth?
To me, it means a decision to start seeing value in yourself as a human being.
I struggled for most of my life feeling “less than” the people around me. Not just family and friends, but people I barely knew or even complete strangers! I didn’t value myself, my feelings or my own intuition. And it showed. People could run all over me and they knew it.
Funny thing about finding self worth: when you find it, people around you start seeing it too.
When I started seeing myself as more valuable, I started refusing to let others treat me like I wasn’t. And suddenly, people started respecting my time, my effort, my humanity. And people who didn’t? It was easy for me to walk away without a trace of guilt.
Don’t get me wrong: I strongly believe in being a compassionate person. But you can feel compassion for other people without letting them run all over you. In fact, not letting them run all over you is the compassionate thing to do! For both of you.
(And I hope it goes without saying that having self worth also means treating others with respect.)
Finding self worth turns into a positive cycle that liberates you from old patterns of defeat. You make better decisions when you view yourself as valuable, precious, irreplaceable. It’s so much easier to say, “This isn’t the best for me” or “This is what I really need to do right now” when you truly feel worthy deep down. It’s almost automatic.
And you know me: I’m all about healthy living being automatic.
More Positive Living Articles:
- When Life is Hard….One Simple Saying To Help You
- Eye-Opening Quotes About Stress, Health, and Wellness
- The Alternative to Giving Up
- When Something Is Missing From Your Life…
Elizabeth is the founder of The Nourished Life and has been writing about natural living for 12 years. Her work has been featured at Shape, Bustle, and Mother Earth Living. Her mission is to help you lower your stress levels and find fun ways to become happier and healthier. Read more about Elizabeth here.
