My Partner is Teaching Me One of Life’s Crucial Lessons — How to Love Myself

I had no idea what it meant to love myself until I saw someone else do it.

Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash

I’ve written blogs about my struggles with self-esteem, appearance, and overall feelings of worth. Almost four years ago I embarked on the journey of personal development and emotional intelligence. But never had I experienced what it felt like to love myself until my partner started showing me what that looked like.

It’s not perfect, we’re not perfect. We have our struggles like any couple. We argue we get annoyed at each other, we make one another angry and sometimes hurt each other. However, we forgive without keeping score, we try our best to accept the other, quirks included. We try to love each other unconditionally.

I’d never experienced what it was to receive love without conditions. I hadn’t experienced someone genuinely caring about what was going on inside me. Since we started dating, and to this day, my boyfriend does little and big things that are teaching me to love myself, including parts of me I didn’t think were worth paying attention to.

Asking me, “what do you need?” Either from myself or him. Telling me he cares for what I care about, and the things I need to feel my best. Saying out loud, and…