1. “How you love yourself is how you teach others to love you.” —Rupi Kaur

2. “Love yourself first and everything else falls into line. You really have to love yourself to get anything done in this world.” —Lucille Ball

3. “If you have the ability to love, love yourself first.” —Charles Bukowski

4. “When things change inside you, things change around you.” —Unknown

5. “People who love themselves, don’t hurt other people. The more we hate ourselves, the more we want others to suffer.” —Dan Pearce

6. “To fall in love with yourself is the first secret to happiness.” —Robert Morely

7. “Your relationship with yourself sets the tone for every other relationship you have.” —Unknown

8. “Love is the great miracle cure. Loving ourselves works miracles in our lives.” —Louise Hay

9. “You have to believe in yourself when no one else does – that makes you a winner right here.” —Venus Williams

10. “Keep watering yourself. You’re growing.” —E.Russell

Hi, guys. Many of you resonated with my previous post about self-love and what I learned about it at 29, so I decided to bring you something special as a follow-up tonight. Below there’s a list of quotes that helped me reframe self-love in a healthier way over the years – some are taken from the internet, some from my own head, because I’m a writer. As always, hope this helps someone else. :)

1. Heal yourself, so you don’t bleed on those who didn’t cut you.

2. When I shared my scars with you, I never imagined you’d be giving me new ones in return. It’s a tale as old as time – hurt people hurt people. But I also think the opposite can be true - healed people heal people. And we get to decide who we’re going to be every day. To others and to ourselves.

3. Become the love you seek, and the love you deserve will eventually seek you in return. Love the broken pieces that make up the masterpiece that is you with the same fervor you love the broken pieces in another. Why is it so easy to see one work of art as beautiful, but not the other? Just because it belongs to you?

4. The devil couldn’t reach me, so he made my favourite person give up on me. However, what the devil didn’t know was that I, too, was my favourite person. And I would never give up on me.

5. How you show up says everything about you, how they show up says everything about them. Drop what isn’t yours to carry. Let that weight fall off your shoulders, darling - it’s too heavy, too undeserved. You’re not responsible for them - your family, your upbringing, your friends’ decisions, your partner’s decisions…only your own.

6. If I asked you to list the things you love, how long would it take until you said yourself?

7. I see how easily you forgive others. But when are you going to start forgiving yourself? You did the best you could with the tools you had at the time. Allow yourself to make mistakes and fall short, you’re not meant to be perfect, and that’s okay. Sometimes regret is the backbone of future wisdom, so let yourself learn and integrate the lesson, don’t just drown in the pain of momentary failure. Nothing lasts forever, not even pain, even if it seems like it at the time.

8. You are enough. Exactly as you are. At this very moment. Read it twice. Three times if you have to.

9. Do you always fall for future potential? Good - fall for your own, too. Do you always see the best in others? Good - it’s time to do the same for yourself.

10. Choose the life you deserve, one moment at a time, with small actions. Speak kindly to yourself today, build towards your dream tomorrow, be open to trying new things even if you might fail, live fearlessly and boldly, take up space without apologies. Life is too short to play small – and honey, you’re anything but.