Use Your Grit to Love Yourself Harder
The internet echoes a familiar line: persist, try harder. Try harder for what? External success. Persisting through adversity to achieve goals earns admiration, and rightly so. But I believe persisting in love—especially self-love—deserves greater praise. Among those who love themselves through life’s darkest moments, we find the truest heroes.
This isn’t narcissistic love. It’s the fierce, resilient love for yourself when life crumbles—when shit hits the fan, when you’re alone, feeling abandoned, or when someone with power over you is cruel, and you feel helpless. Yet, you refuse to abandon self-love. Why should you? If the world hates you, disappoints you, it doesn’t need your voice added to the chorus of disdain. Stand up, stand out, and declare: “I still love myself.”
Why claim this right? Look at the sun—it shines on everything without exception. Flower or horse dung, saint or sinner, you or others—it makes no distinction. I can’t prove my belief, but faith tells me this: You are created by a creator who loves you unconditionally, just as the sun shines on all.
You might ask, “If I’m so loved, why do I suffer?” Think of a nightmare. In it, you suffer, but when you wake, you realize it never happened. You never left your safe, comfortable room. Likewise, you’ve never left the place of total safety and love where you were created—not for a second.
Why do we “fall asleep” into suffering? I don’t know. But I know it’s our responsibility to wake up. To wake up, love yourself as your creator does—fiercely, unconditionally, and without apology.