friendship with oneself is all important, because without it one cannot be friends with anyone else in the world.- eleanor roosevelt
we often focus on building relationships with others that we forget the essential first step: being friends of ourselves. that is the crucial first step if we are to have good relationships with others. how can we have good relationships with others if we don't even have good relationship with ourselves?
the problem might be worse than we expect. maybe we don't like ourselves without realizing it. here is a simple checklist; is there anything you don't like about yourself from these list?
your past
maybe you have made mistakes in the past which you feel bad about. you might be disappointed with yourself on why you could make such mistakes. even if that happened in distant past, your subconscious mind still has a reason not to like yourself.
your background
you might wish that you were born in different family, or that you have different background. maybe you could not accept the fact that you are not as lucky as others, who seem to get whatever they want effortlessly because of their background.
your personality traits
you might have some personality traits that you don't like. for example, you may be an introvert and you don't like it; you wish you are an extrovert.
