You deserve to discover the joys of life

When you
find yourself drowning in
self-hate,

remind yourself - you
weren’t born feeling this way;

remind yourself - somewhere
in your journey
some person or experience
sent you the message
that there was something wrong with
who you are,

and you then internalized
those messages and
took them on
as your truth.

But that hate isn’t yours to carry, and
those judgments aren’t about you.

And in the same way that you
learned
to think badly of yourself, you can
learn
to think new, self-loving and accepting thoughts.

You can learn to challenge
those beliefs, take away
their power, and reclaim
your own.

It won’t be easy, and
it won’t happen over night.

But it is possible.

And it starts when
you decide
that there has to be more
to life than this pain you feel.

It starts
when you decide
that
you deserve to discover it.

-- Danielle Keopke
(arranged, edited quote)