By Sabilia Putri Agitha
Do you like yourself? From my observation, I can say that many people do not like themselves. Some of them realise it including me. But some people do not know it and it can be the root of failure in life.
I like observing people. I like to learn how people behave and analyse the nature of a person so that I can meet their expectations. Based on my habit of observing people, I found that few people have charisma and good personality. From here, I learned how to act like them in order to be loved by the people around me.
But suddenly questions like “Why do I have to be like somebody else?”, “Why can’t I be myself when I’m with them?” linger in my head. And these questions suddenly make me feel anxious and I become doubtful, later, I ask myself further “Do I like myself?” “Does Allah love me the way I am right now?”
This is the most difficult question to be clarified. I kept thinking in order to get answers to all my questions. After a long contemplation, I realised that I already have the answers long ago, but then I deny it in order to be accepted by the people in my network.
I am terrified, if I can behave in a certain way that gives pleasure to the people around me, they will refuse to be my friend. Honestly, one of my biggest fears is rejection. From the clarification of my wonderful thought, still, I cannot perfectly predict whether I truly love myself or not. And also, I, myself, do not know whether Allah loves me after all of the denials that I have projected about my life. The rejection from the people and the self-doubt often let me down.
But, as I grow older, I go through a lot of experiences; bitter and sweet. These experiences, with no hesitation, define one’s maturity. Slowly, I realised that rejecting and often blaming myself for the failure cannot change the things to be better but it somehow gets worse.
We all must respect and accept ourselves. If we accept ourselves and just be ‘you’, people will accept us for who we are. We need to instil positive thoughts in our self; always say positive charm to yourself like “I can do this”, “I am the best!”.
With all these optimistic thoughts, we can increase self-motivation in doing something. If we fail to perform something well, we just need to get up and try again. After the failure and rise that we have endured, we will appreciate ourselves more and when we succeed in achieving our goal the effort is paid off. We need to have self-respect and self-love in order to be accepted by others.
To be loved by Allah, we need to worship Allah and always ask for His forgiveness. Indeed, Allah loves someone who submits and surrenders to Him. Besides, as a human being, we also need to perform and avoid from doing bad deeds. Allah always assumes that all of his servants are valuable, so, we should also think that we are worthy and deserve respect from others.
Be yourselves; be someone who is unique, precious, jovial and beautiful in our own way. Cherish every moment that is dear to you. One of many quotes that I remember until now is “You are the one person that you never get away from”. It is you who you can trust and depend on.
Be beautiful, be you. Be yourself. ***