Hi. Just wanted to share that the way I see it is.. when we believe the opinions of others to be true, we are giving weight to those opinions. When someone tells us something nice and it feels good, they could turn around and say something mean and make us feel bad. We lose either way when we give substance to other’s opinions! We let them control how we feel. One thing you can do is realize that opinions are just that. Someone could see a rose and think it is the most beautiful thing they’ve ever seen before, but someone else could see it and curse the rose for its thorns. Everyone’s own perception and reality is only seen through their eyes. You can’t change that. The only person’s perception you can change is your own. The only voice you can reframe is the one inside your mind that is criticizing you so much. We are all human. We all make mistakes, we are all imperfect. Embrace your imperfections! Get to know yourself. Get to know your strengths and weaknesses. Get to know that voice inside your head that is always criticizing you and realize that it does not always hold truth. And that sometimes, that voice is just trying to protect us. What I mean by that is this voice is there to help you to strive to be “better,” because maybe one day if you are “good” enough, you will feel good enough. But we can’t ever feel good enough if there’s always this voice hating on everything we do. So sometimes we just gotta tell this part of us to relax a little bit – we got this.

Mindfulness/meditation and positive self-affirmations are a great way to start on the journey to self-acceptance. (this is all coming from someone who has really struggled with self-esteem!) I also recommend watching some of Noah Elkrief’s videos on youtube. Here is a good one to start with https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bn1rv7BZvvw he is a therapist and meditation expert.