Randomness of Life

I’m just going to jump right in. I’ve heard at least two variations of this saying. One being “You need to love yourself, before you can expect others to love you.” the other being “You need to love yourself, before you can truly love others.” I am aware that there are many variations of these sayings but these two are the ones I’ve heard the most and I never liked them...especially the second. I always understood them to mean, that if I can’t love myself, then the love I have for others just isn’t real love. I know this might seem somewhat dramatic but it made me feel like people were trying to tell me, that my feelings weren’t real and that what I thought was love...well wasn’t. It’s only recently I realised what these sayings really meant (I still don’t fully agree with them but I’ll get into that later). I finally understood that it was saying I needed to make myself a priority, to take care of myself and my needs, be nice to myself and show myself understanding and empathy. Fo...

Hate is a strong emotion. A bit of an ugly one too. One says it's the polar opposite of love but at the same time so close to it. For my sake I really hope that's true. My mother told me from a very young age to not hate people. Not for some ethical reason or because she was trying to label it as wrong. Her reasoning was or more is, that if you hate someone (again a strong emotion) you're giving someone you really dislike, a lot of power over you and your energy. And that really resonated with me, so my entire life I have tried really hard not to hate anyone. Sure there were a fair few people I disliked but I'd never let myself hate them, no matter what they did because they just weren't worth my time or energy. For years I thought I'd been successful. Regardless what other people threw at me I wouldn't let them get the better of me. But obviously I wasn't; otherwise I wouldn't have titled this "The one person I hate" now would I? Althoug...