“To love oneself is the beginning of a life-long romance,” said Oscar Wilde, but how do you acquire self-worth when you kind of sort of hate yourself?

I’ve always regarded the prospect of self-love as seriously lame. But not just lame: the very thought of focusing one’s affections onto oneself was a bit nauseating.

My religion was self-hatred. How hilarious is self-hatred? Self-deprecation is my favourite kind of humour. Comedians who hate all over themselves by poking fun at their alcoholism, their chronic feelings of unworthiness or their inability to have functional adult relationships are HiLaRiOUs! Gets me every time.

Not only is self-hatred a bone tickler, it’s also powerfully motivating. I have personally used a generalised sense of nondescript inadequacy to drive all my goals, which had me chasing shiny things from country to country, career peak to peak, ladder rung to rung. Through all that relentless striving, I was trying to get to one sparkly destination: a place called Good Enough.

It was an excellent approach to productivity, I felt.

The magical land of Good Enough

It’s part of the Australian culture to loathe oneself at least 85% of the time – a trait we picked up from the British. If you start to get a bit too self-accepting, your community will be sure to tug you back down to the communal pit of mild discontent. We don’t want anyone to float away with elation, now. That wouldn’t be fair to rest of the folks out there who loathe themselves day and night.

Australian tall poppy syndrome

And so I fit in. I got pats on the back whenever I was openly self-rejecting. You’re doing it right! said society.

I used this negative energy to drive me – furiously. Inside me there was a fire that burned strong with the determination to prove myself. I didn’t even care to whom I was proving myself, but my approximate goal was: Absolutely everyone, at all times.

I worked tirelessly and over-delivered on everything. I got all of my projects to the point of laboured, bleeding perfection, and then I put in another 250%, just in case.

And I fit in. I got pats on the back whenever I under-slept to over-deliver. You’re doing it right! said society.

There was just one small caveat. All I wanted, for all the hard work and missed sleep, was a little magic phrase uttered from the lips of literally anyone, along the lines of:

You are worth it

If that phrase was a gold coin, I made sure I was cashing in.

My schoolteachers said “You get an A+!” whenever I submitted anything. I made sure they did. I just stayed up all night to make it happen. My employers said, “You’re excellent at your job!” and my boyfriend said, “You’re beautiful and fun to be around!”

Ka-Ching, ching, ching!

I made these people my Good Enough judges.

It was great.

I built the foundation of my sense of self-worth onto this precious pile of approval. All I had to do was make sure I was over-delivering at all times, in every area of my life – always.

Piles and piles of self worth

It was effective.

I was successful.

I was fitting into my culture.

I had plenty of great self-deprecating joke material.

Everything was completely fine, up until…

I lost all my self worth

… my relationship fell apart and my dad died. My freelance work dried up, my plans collapsed, and I tumbled from the mountain of self-worth I had been building, smacking the ground hard on impact.

Turns out, I had built my sense of self-belief upon the worst possible foundation:

Other people.

And now those people were now gone.

(People can be terribly unreliable like that.)

Here’s a portrait of me from that time of my life:

Fly on wall

 

Fly on wall – closer

Fly butthole

Maggot being born

Baby maggot

A maggot was born.

Let me tell you, it’s hard to get around in the world when you’re nothing but a tiny, disgusting, self-loathing maggot. It was awful. I felt worthless. So lacking was my backbone of self-belief that I could hardly stand upright without collapsing in on myself. This was no way to live. But a very small part of me – the part that still cared – knew I needed help.

And so that gross little maggot got on the internet one day and there she came across some words on the blog of a writer named Gigi Griffis. The piece was called: How Solo Travel Taught me to Love Myself.

Maggot searches Google

Self love.

Ugh. Gross.

I clicked the link.

“…self-love is, in part, being your own mother, father, sister, friend, lover, and advocate. It’s about not waiting for someone else to stand up for you, to comfort you, to love you unconditionally…but, instead, doing those things for yourself first.”

Ugh.

Really?

How lame.

The trouble with hating yourself is, the very thought of learning to love yourself feels as stomach-churning as trying to force yourself to love anyone you despise, like that weird guy Murray in accounting who smells of mothballs and artificial cheese flavouring.

Just, no.

Self love. How lame.

I read on, now more concerned with judging Gigi than learning from her.

Gigi said that she has this habit of assigning specific love songs to each adored person in her life: some kind of song that fits that person and expresses the love she feels for them. To help with her journey towards self-love, she decided she would give a love song to herself.

Seriously?

Maggot rolls eyes

Yuck.

How saccharine. How lovey-dovey, gooey-soupy gross.

But I did it too.

I sang a love song to myself, because I was sick of being a maggot.

At first it felt so corny and stupid, just as it felt stupid to try to treat myself like I was my own mother, father, sister, friend, lover and advocate. It felt stupid and lovey-dovey, gooey-soupy gross, but I did it anyway, because I knew I needed help.

I took myself on fun little outings and treated myself to movies, small gifts and picnics, like a good lover would.

Romantic date with self

I did exercise and put good food into my body and nurtured my physical self, like a good parent would.

I put music on and danced with myself, just for fun, like a good friend would.

I forgave myself for making silly mistakes, like a good sister would.

I cheered myself forward even when I felt like quitting, like a good advocate would.

I even sang myself love songs.

Nothing was happening.

I was just running through the motions, but feeling nothing. It was like going to the gym everyday but losing no weight.

And now, not only was I a maggot, I was also a massive loser of a maggot who was taking myself out on “dates” and dancing solo to Beyoncé with the door closed.

Bae Maggot

All the single ladies indeed.

I remember being struck by something Gigi said in her piece, which happened to her one day as she was walking past a mirror and she caught her own reflection:

“…seeing myself staring back, I felt a rush of affection. The kind of affection I feel for my little sister or my best friend. The kind of affection that makes you want to run over and embrace someone. Suddenly and beautifully, my self-worth existed because I existed. I was worth something because I am me.”

I was worth something because I am me.

I pushed on through the motions.

It started.

At first it was barely distinguishable: a bouncier step, a lighter feeling in my body, an easier laugh, smoother Beyoncé high kicks with less inner-thigh muscle damage.

But then I began to notice some more substantial changes.

Mirror affirmations

Where before I had absorbed other people’s emotions – taking on their anger or sadness like a seasonal flu – I could now see a clear boundary between somebody else’s emotional state and my own. Low on self-worth, I had mistakenly assumed I was to blame for other people’s emotions, that I had somehow caused them or that it was my duty in life to be a receptacle for other people’s pain, lowly maggot that I was.

This made me either defensive or withdrawn in self protection, overly tolerant and easily exploited, or else obligated to jump in and try to fix problems that weren’t mine to fix. Combat, endure or fix: those were my only options anytime someone was unhappy around me.

I resented people for being unhappy too, because it was a horrendous burden to have to combat, endure or fix all the time. I was vulnerable to sudden, unpredictable mood shifts, because it would only take someone getting upset in my near vicinity and – boom – day ruined. As it turns out, I had been going around in the world absorbing a whole bunch of stuff that didn’t belong to me.

But I was worth something now. I was worth not having the job of pain fixer-up-er-er. I was worth inner peace and happiness. I was worth a bright, light, sacred bubble of personal space controlled by me and me alone, and so I let all negativity bounce off this magical force field that I made with my mind:

Self protective self worth bubble

A weird thing happened as a result: I had far more energy. Turns out, absorbing other people’s toxicity like a human sponge is a really heavy burden to carry around, but now I was floating about with an unfamiliar lightness of being.

Surplus energy produced more joy and joy produced more energy. It felt almost wrong to feel so free.

Am I forgetting something? I kept asking myself. So accustomed was I to this extra workload, I had to train myself into this new state of being.

It’s okay to be this happy, I would remember.

With more energy and joy, social situations became not just easy, but fun. When before, at parties, I’d shied into a corner to eat all the cheese while focusing the bulk of my mental capacity on clever tactics for avoiding people – in case I ended up having to combat, endure or fix – I was now free to just connect, soul to soul. Socialising was no longer an exhausting prospect.

I was making new and interesting friends. And these new and interesting friends brought new and interesting experiences to my life, which brought me more energy and joy. One good thing built upon the next in a positive feedback loop.

(There was a lot more cheese left on antipasto platters, too.)

Old self and new self at parties

It was during a phone call with my mother that I knew something significant had shifted inside of me. I was telling her a story about a conversation I’d had with a dear friend in a supermarket the day before. My story stopped short when my memory went blank—

“I was standing in the frozen food section talking with…”

…who was that person again?

I couldn’t remember who this person was. It had only been one day since this event – what was wrong with my memory? Was I getting Alzheimer’s? Who was I with yesterday? I scanned my brain for clues. She was someone I really adored, a dear friend, a fun friend, a women who I truly loved…

…but who was she?

And then I remembered a key detail: I was alone that day. With my inner dialogue.

That dear friend who I truly loved was… me.

I had forgotten I was alone that day because I wasn’t used to feeling such kind, accepting warmth in my own company.

Love thy self

This was post #2 of The Illustrated Guide to Calming the F#@! Down.

Every few weeks, I’ll be bringing you creations on this theme (with Sarah Steenland on cartooning), so that you can go on an inward-bound travel adventure with us towards introspection and self-exploration, with the goal of better understanding ourselves and each other. Subscribe to never miss a post.

Read post #1 here on How To Listen To Your Gut.

 

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18 Response Comments

  • Kayla  September 28, 2017 at 2:32 am

    I love this! Thank you for sharing your experience. I am entering the same process after ending a long-term relationship and unexpected health issues. I just arrived home from a solo trip in Scandinavia with refreshed confidence. An amazing adventure and a reminder that self love heals.

    Reply
  • Kelsey A Glennon  September 29, 2017 at 3:18 pm

    Dang, I love your writing.Thanks for sharing your journey to self-love.We all need to hear more stories of people realizing they are enough, since society and the internet are literally always like “nope!”

    Also, I am TOTALLY the person eating all the cheese in a corner at parties.But usually I find a fellow cheese eater to gush about gouda with. #introvertproblems

    PS: Beyonce maggot is my spirit animal.

    Reply
    • Sarah Steenland  October 9, 2017 at 3:46 am

      Haha So great – we need to send you a Beyoncé maggot sticker.

      Reply
  • Bree  September 30, 2017 at 12:23 pm

    So many tears. You talk directly to my soul ?

    Reply
  • Katie  October 9, 2017 at 4:15 am

    I love this so much – I may have had the same reaction to self love articles I have come across. But you are right, it is important, and it is also something I am continually working on.

    Reply
  • Patricia Sands  October 24, 2017 at 3:37 am

    Torre, loving yourself is the best gift you can give yourself. It doesn’t cost nearly as much as you seem to think it does. Trust me.

    Reply
  • Rachel Lei  March 7, 2018 at 9:01 pm

    I have shared this many many times. I absolutely love it. Somehow, the trite message on the important of loving myself FINALLY makes sense. Better 49 than never, right? Thank you for finding me at the right time and place. It honestly has felt like a bit of a lightning strike. xoxo (not that you need it. :))

    Reply
  • Faye Thiele  November 4, 2018 at 12:07 am

    Hi Torre, I loved reading your book ‘love with a chance of drowning.’ I couldn’t put it down. I was relating so much to your trip through the Pacific. I was fortunate to cruise mostly the Pacific for 8 years on a 10 metre yacht with my husband who I found on the beach in Fiji. We used to sail across the Tasman to NZ and then on to Tonga,or Noumea, Apia, but always ended up at Malolo Lai Lai in Fiji (Musket Cove). Join the race from Musket Cove to Vanuatu and the head back to Australia mostly clearing into Bundaberg. Lucky me I was already a ‘yachtie’ having begun sailing at the tender age of about 12 or 13. My Mum bought me a 12’ yacht when I was 14 and I used to sail off Elwood beach on my own and just loved the freedom I felt. I have had a pretty adventurous life for which I am very grateful. So many tales I have sailing aboard ‘Spitfire’ with my hilarious husband. Many people have suggested to me that I should write a book. I don’t have the writing flair that you have but maybe I will have a crack at it. I do have a zany sense of humour which is what I loved reading your story. You are quite an amazing gal, so I will be following your blog with great interest. Thank you for sharing.

    Reply
  • Ashish  March 25, 2019 at 6:53 am

    I adore this! Much obliged to you for sharing your experience

    Reply
  • Sharon  March 28, 2019 at 7:12 am

    I so love this! Self-love is above anything else in this world. You cannot love others if you do not have it within you. Thank you so much for this wonderful writing. Such an inspiration!

    Reply
  • Kaylini Naidoo  June 30, 2020 at 3:18 pm

    Wow, this truly speaks to me. Self love is so hard at times. There have been so many times when I thought what I saw in the mirror defined what I felt about myself. I’m in a much better place thanks do much for sharing this.

    Reply
  • Ask The Dutch Guy  March 1, 2021 at 10:09 am

    Great read! I also believe that you must love yourself first before you can love others. Let’s practice self-love.

    Reply
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