11 February 2021
You are enough. Accepting oneself plays a very vital role in living a happy and fulfilling life. It is absolutely fine to have flaws; every one of us has flaws, but you should focus on the positive things about yourself and celebrate them. You do not need to be perfect; you just need to be real and true to yourself. Self-acceptance makes you stronger mentally, emotionally and physically. Do not put yourself in a situation where you feel stuck and cannot move forward. Life goes on and you should keep going and moving forward. Do not sacrifice your life for people who are not loyal to you. Do not lose who you are for people who are not worth it. It is so important that we do not waste our time living in fear. Rather, try to find the courage and start living your dreams and aspirations. Take risks because failures are always better than regrets. Get up, put your best face on and do what you love. Stop doubting yourself because you don’t want to dwell on the ‘what ifs’ later on in life. Sometimes, life shows you the worst before allowing you to live your best. Maybe it’s to give you motivation to make sure you never return to that place again, or maybe it’s to make you appreciate how far you’ve come. Who knows, but it makes you realise that you are done descending. It is time to rise up with your newly formed friends: Power and Courage. Forget the toxic friends who constantly put you down, Power and Courage will lift you up and enable you to live your best life. It is not vain to feel and know that you are beautiful, amazing, special and to love yourself. We are taught that people who say this are arrogant and deluded, without realising that they are simply unapologetically confident. We are taught to feel that we are not good enough, that we must live up to someone else’s expectation. However, you need to love who you are and absolutely cherish yourself because, my friends, YOU ARE ENOUGH. In life, it does not matter who you used to be; what matters is who you are TODAY. Always remember that you are not your mistakes. You are not your failures. You are not your mishaps. You are not your pain. You are not your wounds. In other words, YOU ARE NOT YOUR PAST. The moment you decide to let go of the past and accept who you are today, is the moment you start living. Being beautiful means to be yourself with all your flaws. You do not need to be accepted by others. You just need to accept that you are amazing, you are good enough, beautiful enough and strong enough. Believe it and don’t allow your insecurity and society’s perception of you to govern your life. Remember this: you are enough, just the way you are. Every emotion you feel, everything you do or do not do, where you are and who you are, IS ENOUGH. You are perfect. Love yourself and celebrate YOU. Vanice Ricketts