{"id":7044,"date":"2022-02-28T09:48:14","date_gmt":"2022-02-28T14:48:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/?p=7044"},"modified":"2025-08-24T12:21:14","modified_gmt":"2025-08-24T16:21:14","slug":"why-you-should-love-yourself","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/2022\/02\/28\/why-you-should-love-yourself\/","title":{"rendered":"Why You Should Love Yourself"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201cHow you love yourself is how you teach others to love you,\u201d Rupi Kaur, famous illustrator, poet, author and photographer, said. Loving yourself presents a challenge in today\u2019s society. There are many expectations. This can create feeling of pressure. Many question how are we supposed to look? Or act? \u201cI believe that social media is the main reason for negative body images. Think about it? We have apps to completely change ourselves. All into something we are not, using Photoshop. If that is done all the time, then it makes people think they need to Photoshop. All to look perfect. People only post what they want others to see. If they feel bad about themselves, they don\u2019t show it. This makes people (young men and women) feel awful about themselves,\u201d 18-year-old spiritual activist and local native, Jasmine Nerderman, said. These feelings of negativity are hard to deal with and many feel pressured to look a certain way.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The way we treat ourselves matters. Many of us have experienced body shaming at some point in our lives. \u201cI\u2019m the worst about body shaming myself. I do feel people should not be body shaming other people. I am an advocate for body positivity. I know the feelings of pressure being placed on me to be perfect,\u201d 19-year-old mom, body positive activist and proud supporter of the LGBTQIA+ community, Allie Campbell, said. Many feel the stress of trying to be perfect. It makes it hard to be yourself when everyone wants you to be someone else. \u201cI grew up heavily body shamed. It took a huge mental toll on me. From hating myself, to having full blown eating disorders\u2026some I\u2019m still fighting. I\u2019ve been through hard times. I would hate to be the one to put someone else through that,\u201d Nerderman said.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Mental Health Matters.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0These negativities can lead to eating disorders, self-harm and lack of self-confidence. \u201cEveryone is different and everyone has different ways of dealing with body images. I believe we need to find the things that make us love ourselves. Make time for them. This is a massive societal change that needs to happen. I change my appearance using hair dye, haircuts or makeup. I have struggled with suicidal thoughts because of body image issues and eating disorders. Not because I don\u2019t get loved, but because I feel I\u2019m not worthy of love,\u201d Campbell said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0These feelings of having to change appearances to fit in ultimately change who we are. \u201cI\u2019ve seen people self-harm (including myself) to change themselves to be loved. I\u2019ve also seen people (including myself) change themselves to be loved. It\u2019s heartbreaking that this is the world we are in now. We need to do better,\u201d Nerderman said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Many feel struggles. This shows how hard it is to love yourself. \u201cIf you can\u2019t care for yourself, caring for others will be harder. Your mental state will go downhill, as well as your physical state. This happens over long periods of time. That\u2019s why lots of people take days where they can just relax and do stuff they love,\u201d business college student, former track and field runner and chess player, Jeffrey Remis, said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Notably, however, there are ways to learn to love yourself. These skills are important because you\u2019ll gain confidence, feel better and learn to be you again. \u201cI feel like we should all love our bodies. I am someone who is spiritual. I see my body as a strong, physical structure that allows my soul to be here. We should all love who we are as people as well. If you\u2019re a genuinely good person, be happy with it. The more of you we have, the better the world can be. Society seems to hate genuine people and they will suck what love you have for yourself out,\u201d Nerderman said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Society does provide standards that are undeniable. But what if they don\u2019t matter? \u201cYou should love yourself because you are different and special. You\u2019re not like everyone else. If everyone was the same, life would be boring,\u201d Remis said. The thought of happiness begins with being content with yourself. Just imagine how good you\u2019ll feel when you\u2019ve accepted that.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0To find balance within our daily lives is challenging. Making time for yourself can really help. \u201cSelf-care and love is huge for me. I\u2019ve struggled with postpartum depression and a few other mental health issues. I do believe if I stopped my self-care and love rituals, that I wouldn\u2019t have any time to be me,\u201d\u00a0 Campbell said. Taking time for you will help bring peace.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201cNow this is silly. It may not work for everyone. However, it\u2019s helped me. Before you go to bed, tell yourself you\u2019re gorgeous a few times. Words of affirmations help so much! Tell yourself you\u2019re beautiful several times when looking in a mirror. The little things like taking showers, pamper yourself and listening to your favorite tunes,\u201d Nerderman said. These are ideas that can help anyone find balance and learn to view themselves more positively.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0We can all learn to love ourselves through positivity. \u201cWho can love you more than yourself? When you\u2019re down, who is there before anyone ever will be? Yourself! We live in a society where we are conditioned to go with trends and if we can\u2019t, we get called names. That\u2019s said for men and women. So, to break the generational curse, we need to pick up self-confidence by the hair and own it,\u201d Nerderman said. We are all human. In showing empathy to ourselves, we begin to express loving ourselves. \u201cIndividuality is so important. A lot of today\u2019s society is about being the best you can at being the image the media pushes at you. Individuality is what makes us human,\u201d Campbell said. Just think about what that means. You could be free to be you. How amazing is that?<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Today, we see how we should look and act. But what if that were to change? \u201cMake natural bodies the trend for life, not just the hourglass figure but everything else as well. Make mom bods, dad bods, bigger women and bigger men the trend. Make stretch marks, body hair and scars a trend. Make loving yourself for the beautiful person you are a trend,\u201d Nerderman said. In normalizing being human, we would all love ourselves more. \u201cHonestly, my advice is to take 10-20 minutes out of every day (for me it\u2019s easiest to do this at night before bed). Little things to do whatever makes you feel good. Not social media or other people related. Just to yourself,\u201d Campbell said. The smallest of things can make the biggest difference in helping you find you.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Many of us are attached to items that help us fit into society. These items are how we love ourselves. But should those items define how we love ourselves? \u201cYou shouldn\u2019t let material items define how you love yourself. From the outside everyone seems like they have it the best. But, on the inside, we are all fighting our own demons quietly,\u201d Nerderman said. Many often feel these judgments. \u201cIt\u2019s not worth it. You are on this world as a beautiful ray of sunshine. Society\u2019s wants do not come over your NEEDS! You are not responsible for other people\u2019s interpretations,\u201d Campbell said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The way we feel about ourselves matters. The more we love ourselves, the happier we will feel. In feeling this happiness, we can each become our own ray of sunshine. Shining brightly each and every day forward. Onward into the future.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201cHow you love yourself is how you teach others to love you,\u201d Rupi Kaur, famous illustrator, poet, author and photographer, said. Loving yourself presents a challenge in today\u2019s society. There are many expectations. This can create feeling of pressure. Many question how are we supposed to look? Or act? \u201cI believe that social media is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7381],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archives","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7044","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/121"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7044"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7044\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8184,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7044\/revisions\/8184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}