You are important!

Most people I come across don’t see themselves as important because everyone else comes first. Most of the time when I ask people to write a list of 5 to 10 things of what and who is important in their life they are rarely on that list. ‘Why?’ I ask and they almost curl up in in a tiny little ball and roll away. Don’t get me wrong I am aware that a lot of people have never be made to feel important when they were children so they can’t see their own importance but even people who have had great upbringings don’t see this in themselves.

When I was a kid, we weren’t really taught about self-love and looking after oneself we were taught to be kind to others and respect your elders but as I got older, I realised that I don’t need to respect someone older than me just because of their age. If someone does not treat me in a way I should be treated on a basic human level, why do I need to respect them? The answer is that I don’t. Everyone deserves to be treated the way you treat others if you treat someone bad expect that back and if you treat someone respectfully then this is also what you should get back. But we aren’t always treated the way we treat others, and it is about recognising behaviours that we would not exhibit on to others. Listen everyone can get pissed off and overreact or get defensive but it’s about how we handle a situation and that we can recognise and put things right when we mess up. Afterall we are only human.

Recognising that you are important allows you to identify things you won’t put up with in relationships whether this is family, friends or partners and enables you to put your boundaries in place and get your needs met in said relationships.

Self-worth is about how we see ourselves, the way in which we are brought up and social factors can affect this. Working on our own self-worth can not only change the way we feel about ourselves, but it improves our relationships with others and overall mental health and wellbeing.