Love Yourself

Thursday, 31st March, 2016

Hey guys!

Yesterday, a friend of mine shared a piece of writing with me. It was about loving yourself in the simplest and most primal way; without society’s influence. It got me thinking about just how much we allow society’s invisible rules to guide the decisions we make in the love department.

The piece I read talked about how it wasn’t necessary to be in a relationship to be ‘loved’ or feel ‘loved’. Whoever wrote this, shared with the world their insight on how society claims that the only way you can say you’ve experienced love is by being with a partner, and how much that isn’t true.
There is love in everything we do, there is love in every friendship we’ve made, every hug we’ve given to our parents, every kiss we’ve placed on a sibling’s cheek, and every ruffle of a dog’s ear.
There is love in every smile we’ve tossed a passerby, every penny we’ve given a thriving artist busking on the street, every meal we’ve bought a stranger in need.

Love is in our humanity.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. The piece I read emphasised how misinformed society is and how plagued we are by the expectations we place upon ourselves. We do not need ‘the one’ standing beside us in the form of a partner. The only difference between the love of a partner and the love of a parent is that you are sexually intimate with one and not the other. And doesn’t it make it all the more precious that someone can love you, for all that you are flaws and all, and not require anything in return? In a relationship, or when you’re dating, it’s expected that at sometime you need to show your love to the other by way of sex. It’s such a 180 from the purest love of parent and child, or siblings, or the first relationship we forge of our choosing; that of friendship. Neither of these relationships is perfect. I’m not saying that. I’ve fought with my sister countless times. I’ve gotten angry with my mum and dad for the silliest of reasons. But that’s what’s so beyond brilliant about Love. True love. It’s that I know, without a shadow of a doubt, that I could mess up in the worst possible way with my parents or my sister and they’ll love me. They my be angry at me, disappointed, hurt, annoyed, or indifferent to what I’ve done. But they will also love me. That won’t go away.

So when we have a love like that, why do we seek a validation of our self-worth from the presence of a partner or significant other? I’m not saying don’t be in a relationship. I’m not saying that at all! Nor am I saying that it’s a bad thing to be in one. A lot of the relationships people have with their partners morph into the most beautiful, soul-deep love we’ve ever known.
But a lot of the relationships also go very bad. We insist on striving to achieve the ‘perfect’ life by the unseen but ever-present timeline of love set my an unseen but ever-present societal council. By twenty-two you should’ve had your heart broken at least once. By thirty one you should be married and thinking about children. But forty-five you should be well into married life, living in a house with a dog and three children. And those that don’t conform to the mould are disregarded or hounded, depending on who around them ‘cares’. Why?

We need to love ourselves. We need to dig deep and find within ourselves the courage to be content and feel loved whether or not we have ‘the one’ standing beside us. We don’t need a partner to convince us that we’re beautiful, that we’re worth love. That we ARE loved. We never needed it.
Marriage and sex was simply a way to ensure we weren’t lonely and that the human race survived over the generations. But then we loved. We’ve always loved. And, while we may not ever fully understand the complex emotion, we do understand that it is vital but we’ve only just began to realise to what extent.

Shut yourself from all the societal pressures if you need to. Take a day off. Go offline. Find a way to cage yourself, throw away the key and learn all that makes you wonderful and free. You are the only one in the world that limits yourself. You are the only one in the world that will always love all that you are. Find a way to do that so that you can love another the way they deserve when they walk into your life, and so that they can love all that you are without having to really figure out why.

Be free.

 

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Until next time lovelies 🙂

xo

Gemini

Monday, 25th May, 2015

Again, it’s been a while. I guess, since most of my posts tend to be when something unfavourable has occurred, I’d say life’s been good enough that I’ve had nothing to write about really. I’ll analyse why I only write when I’m upset on a later date, other than the most obvious reason; it’s therapeutic.

I picked Gemini as a theme of discussion because, well it’s Gemini season! And I’m a Gemini. There’s a Gemini fact that I’ve always been told is very prominent but always dismissed. Until now obviously.

That trait would be that a Gemini is one of the loneliest people on earth. They feel that no one truly understands them and that no one will ever really want to. Maybe that’s why Gemini’s are considered shallow. It’s a defense mechanism. Nothing hurts more than opening up to a person completely to have it thrown back in your face when they dismiss your thoughts, troubles and dreams because they simply didn’t understand it.

I talked to someone today. We were having a bit of a tiff and whatever I’d been feeling compounded into a massive blow out where I broke down and just told them everything I was feeling because of their actions. They turned everything around on me saying I was the wrong party and that they knew they were wrong but I was overreacting. Seriously the worst thing you could say to anyone, not just a Gemini.

And I guess it made me think about what else is actually true on those newspaper horoscope things I tend to read for fun. I thought a lot about myself and how it’s true that I don’t open up to most people, that I’m always smiling despite how I really feel and only if I really trust you will I show you the inner layers. So to have that thrown in my face, again, today was a big blow.

It’s not even just a Gemini thing. It’s just how my thought process started. This applies to everyone everywhere. Everyone’s got their own defense mechanisms and ways of coping. Everyone hides their truest self until they’re alone. I read somewhere that there are three faces to every human being; the public face, the friends and family face, and the face when the person is completely and totally alone. It makes me sad to think that the world has come to such a state where we need to have those many faces. It’s sadder still that there is truth in the statement where we have a face reserved for family and friends. Ideally, you’d like to be yourself completely around the people you love, and the fact that you’re not, no matter how much you try, highlights so strongly the deepest insecurities a person has.

It brought to light another fact; everyone knows we hide ourselves and yet no one tried to help you find you. I reckon that’s worse than having to hide yourself. At least it is for me.

I’m sitting here shaking my head at all the thoughts and emotions running around in circles in my brain and I can’t fully express just how disheartened it’s made me feel. And if I’m feeling it I know people out there are too.

So all I have to say to end this quite haphazard post is that, if you want someone to discover the truest version of yourself, work to try discover their’s. It doesn’t matter who it is. Could be a complete stranger even. Make someone feel like they matter, like they belong and that you care, someone cares. Then maybe, just maybe, by doing that, there will be hope for the world after all.

The song I’ve chosen for this post is so fitting it couldn’t NOT be the song.

Take care of yourselves and stay safe guys 🙂

xo