They say that you can’t love anybody else until you love yourself, and I think in many respects that’s true. How can you fully love somebody if you’re riddled with self-doubt, anxieties and jealousy?

We all know that the world would be a better place with a little more love, but we seem reluctant to start making the changes that begin with loving ourselves – myself included. I’ve spent the majority of my life beating myself up mentally and physically, and I expect you’ve done the same, possibly without even realising it.

Loving and accepting yourself will result in loving and accepting everyone else. So what are we afraid of?

I was a little worried that I’d come off as self-obsessed/selfish (although, come on now, this is the blogging world..) and maybe even a little arrogant writing this, let alone allowing myself love myself – possibly a stupid self-deprecating English thing.

But I feel like it’s something that should be said here, instead of just writing it over and over in my notebooks. It isn’t a new idea, but we need reminding until it becomes second nature.

The people who I’ve met along the way who are at peace with themselves never come across as the things above – they just seem lovely, and happy. Arrogance comes from a place of self-doubt. Selfishness comes from feeling unloved.

Here’s a thought – we don’t have to listen to the bullshit rules about how we should be. We are constantly being force-fed contradicting ideals, until we almost forget who we are.

We take huge steps backwards and look to others to tell us what our next steps should be, instead of looking and loving within to take a true step forward.

Basically, a whole load of people in this weird world are making me do this face a LOT lately:

Guys and girls, let’s stop freaking out about getting our beach bods ready in time for summer, and just concentrate on feeling healthy. Let’s work towards our own goals, and make ourselves proud.

Success, beauty, intelligence.. they’re all just opinions.

Let’s just start by making ourselves do some little smiles:

• put on your favourite outfit and tell yourself how great you look
• take it all off and tell yourself how incredible you look
• look how far you’ve come
• don’t beat yourself up
• take pride in whatever you do
• sing an epic ballad of love to yourself on a regular basis
• take photos of yourself pulling silly faces
• film yourself lip synching with someone fun
• laugh at your own hilarious jokes
• write some tiny goals and work towards them
• hug yourself
• read positive blogs like gala darling
• leave yourself love notes – and if someone else sees them too, even better

Don’t bookmark this for later. Let’s hold hands and start now.