Others will come next | ronak shah

“If you have the ability to love, love yourself first.” - Charles Bukowski

Travel Near, far, doesn't matter. Just push yourself to go somewhere you've never been to. Allow yourself to find joy in different things.

You are not just one in 7 billion people, you are your own universe Remember - your beating heart is an island, pumping and thudding every single day just to keep your magic breathing. Your blood, alive and red courses through your tangled veins just to keep you fighting, every single day for the life you deserve.

Learn to say 'no' to other people his is even more difficult than saying no to yourself. You don't owe anyone anything. You do however, owe it to yourself to strive, every second, for your own happiness.

Remember your happiest moments, and strive to recreate them. Every second you're happy, you are well and truly in love with your being. And there's no shame in needing other people, in feeling yourself burst with happiness during those silly sleepovers or those quiet weekends alone. Chase new experiences, but also chase the things that make you happy.

Surround yourself with laughter. Be around people who remind you of how beautiful your tinkling laughter sounds. Watch a good comedy. Laugh at truly terrible jokes. Even on your worst days, remember that your body can ache with laughter, and then go right ahead and find it.

Take yourself out on a romantic date. Yes, I know how horribly cliched this is, but you need to romance your damn self. Go out to a fancy restaurant, dress yourself up, and make as much effort as you would for a normal date. Yes, people might give you pitiful looks, but understand that their standards don't apply to you. Rise above them, because you deserve to

Stop wishing for your 'perfect' life, and stop working yourself to the bone for it. Take pride in the now, in the life you've so painstakingly built for yourself. Stop wishing for something else, for that prettily packaged idea of 'perfect'. Because that, my dear, doesn't exist. The brave, flawed world that exists around you, however, does. So enjoy it.

Become the person you want to fall in love with And I don't mean this physically. Imagine your 'perfect' person. Funny, laughing, goofy, happy. And strive to be at least one of things, for at least a minute, every day.