Open Letter to Someone Battling Self-Worth

If you will, please consider this an open letter to anyone currently battling self-worth.

I see you. You’re the person who finds it hard to love and accept yourself for who you are. You’re the person who never feels like you’re good enough, smart enough, or pretty enough. I see you, the person who feels less than those around them.

I see you.

I feel you. I’ve been you.

To the person who battles with self-worth.

You are perfect. You are perfect and there is nothing you can think, say or do that can make you feel any less inferior, less-worthy or less-deserving than those around you.

Understand this. Everyone is lovable, including you.

I am in no position to judge you for the sins of your past or the amount of times you have failed. I don’t care how much you weight or the wrong that you have done against others, though I pray you recognize it.

What I know it that you’re worthy of love, compassion, forgiveness and you are worthy of joy and freedom from all that is holding you prisoner.

You were born worthy, and there is no one on Earth who can take that away from you.

You are the ONLY one who can take that away from you.

We are all here fighting the same battles and trying our darnedest to live our best possible life.

Stop being so hard on yourself.

Stop seeking the approval of others. Stop seeking worth and love from others. Love yourself. Know your worth.

You are worthy. You always have been.

Self-worth isn’t something to word towards, but rather it’s something to uncover and come back to.

You need to let go of the toxic beliefs that no longer serve you in a healthy way and come back to the self-love that is buried deep within. It’s been there. It always has been, but when you were faced with adversity time and time throughout the years, you buried it deep within. You need to release the burdening thoughts, situations and experiences that has been holding your prisoner all these years. Your past doesn’t define you nor should it continue to burden and hinder your future.

You are not broken. Let me repeat it for the people in the back. You are not broken.

You just to remember who you were before the world told you who you should be.

Can you remember who you were, before the world told you who you should be?” -Charles Bukowski.

Now that you know that you are worthy and deserving of self-worth, I wanted to provide you with 12 ways to cultivate and practice self-worth.

Here are 12 ways to cultivate self-worth:

Positive Words of Affirmation: Practice saying positive affirmations of self-worth to start your day each and every day. Examples: “I’m worthy of love,” “I deserve love,” and “I deserve forgiveness”
Forgive Yourself: Forgive yourself over and over again until you actually forgive yourself. “I forgive myself for ________”
Write About It: Writing about it and reflecting about self-love and what you need to do to cultivate more of it is a great place for anyone to start.
Establish and Clearly Define Worthiness: Take a good luck at yourself. What are your values? What’s important to you? Establish what worthiness is to you and run with it without worrying what others might think of them.
Be Mindful of Your Thoughts: Take careful note when you start thinking negative thoughts and talk yourself out of them. Practice positive words of affirmation mentioned previously.
Create Your Ideal Environments: If you recognize that there are certain environments that trigger your lack of self-worth, then consider removing yourself from that environment. Put yourself in a space where you feel secure, confident, accepted and happy.
Find Your Tribe: If you find yourself typically surrounded by critical, negative and judgmental people, this will further entrench your feelings of low self-worth. You must find supportive friends who are caring, fun and happy and let go of those who treat you poorly, manipulate you or make you feel bad about yourself.
Show Compassion for Yourself: Show the same kind of compassion for yourself that you would show others. Encourage and support yourself. Treat yourself kindly.
Take Time for You: You show yourself love and compassion when you take the time to take care of yourself.
Deal with Past Wounds: Before you are able to move forward, you must tackle the experiences from your past that have negatively impacted your self-esteem and self-worth. This is also the likely culprit prohibiting you from loving yourself. You have to navigate through past wounds before you can heal and see yourself in a more positive light.
Find Your True Passion: Once you have identified your true passion, you suddenly have a new purpose in your life. By finding your passion, it allows you to be more authentic and expressive. It reinforces positive self-perception which allows you to be more comfortable with yourself.
Simplify and Create Balance in Your Life: There’s no denying that a complicated, overly scheduled life will drain energy and create major anxiety. You need to establish balance by cutting back the amount of obligations and tasks that keep you busy. De-clutter and minimize the amount of stuff you have in your home that doesn’t add value to your life. By doing these things, it frees up more time for you.

Here’s hoping to better, brighter and more positive days ahead. By practicing self-worth and putting practices into place, you’re able to better live the version of yourself you’ve always dreamed of living. Know your worth.

“Loving yourself starts with liking yourself, which starts with respecting yourself, which starts with thinking of yourself in positive ways.” -Jerry Corsten

If you want to learn more about mental health, here is a post discussing ways to manage anxiety.