02/23/2026
YOU ARE WORTHY! 🌺
1. Learn to love & appreciate how you look.
Yes, we live in a society obsessed with beauty. There’s no two ways about it. We’re raised to admire beautiful people: successful actors and models with dimpled grins, defined waists, and toned arses. 😉 As a result, we inherently associate our perceptions of attractiveness with success and happiness.
If we’re to truly love ourselves, we mustn’t allow the way we look to define our personal value. It can’t be our sole “calling card” for love, s*x, or relationships. It can’t be what dictates our worthiness of joy or family or a promotion at work. Think about it: the people who know and love us the most really couldn’t care less about our weight, skin tone, or hairstyle.
So why then do we continue suffering at the manicured hand of some self-imposed criteria for beauty?
If we really want love — the kind that lasts — we must first hold our pride in what we do, not how we look. We must hold it in our ability to write beautiful words, or paint striking paintings, or explore creatively that for which we’re passionate. These are qualities a future date will remember. It won’t be the dress or the shoes or the shade of your lipstick. Trust me. It will be the passion in your voice.
2. Let go of the "shoulds".
If we’re to redefine the love in our lives, we must first attempt to reconcile previous experiences of heartache. We tend to carry around the tiny fragments of failed relationships, folded up neatly in our breast pockets. We let them weigh us down; allow their judgement to dictate our confidence, their disappointment to taint our optimism.
Here’s the deal: we’ve all been hurt! We’ve all been let down. We’ve all had that someone who didn’t message back, or stood us up on a date, or left us heart broken. We’ve all been left feeling exposed and vulnerable and weak, our trust abused and our egos bruised. We can’t resent these feelings, for that would be handing them more power than they deserve.
We need to forgive. We need to move on. 🚶♀️
We need to let go. 🎈
You’re an absolute 100% drop-dead catch, so don’t you dare treat yourself otherwise. You might need to occasionally remind yourself, surprise yourself, woo yourself. Bowl yourself over with your thoughtful ways, take charge of your own happiness. 😊
3. Win yourself over.
Buy yourself flowers from the farmer’s market, and realizing that even though they’re temporary, you deserve their color and beauty in your day.
Why not take a weekend class? Learn how to do yoga, speak another language, or play the acoustic guitar. Time to change things up. You have to SHOW UP for yourself to GLOW UP! Lovers are great, but leaving your happiness to someone else is a form of self sabatoge & well....that's just not acceptable.
So do whatever makes you feel good, even — and especially — when you don’t.
4. Don’t compare yourself.
Life’s not a race. Love’s not a race. Stop competing.
Yes, what’s-her-name might be in a longterm relationship and kicking major goals at work, while you’re still single as hell and stuck in a minimum wage job. Who cares? Life has a funny way of evening out in the end, it just takes everyone a different amount of time. Chill. 🧊
Remember, she is probably looking at your life and wishing she had the same level of independence and freedom. It’s important to enjoy your own pasture, safe in the knowledge that it’ll grow and thrive at its own pace.
5. Build strong friendships.
The people you choose to surround yourself with in your day-to-day can’t be undervalued. I am grateful to have very close friends for over 40 years. Many trials, tribulations, divorces, deaths, as well as events to be celebrated. The good, bad & ugly. That's just what good friends do.
6. Get healthy.
This isn’t about the way you look; it’s about the way you feel. Try swapping the rush of wine for the rush of endorphins. Rediscover the beauty of hangover-free Sunday mornings. Sit in the sun with sunscreen of course, take a walk in the park, a bikeride, a spa treatment. Whatever nourishes your soul & brings you peace. 🧘♀️
Let yourself be that annoying, overtly ‘together’ person — the one with the inner glow. Why? Because you deserve it. 🌟
7. Know what you deserve.
It’s corny, but true: “We only accept the love we think we deserve.” You deserve someone who loves you the next morning, when your hair’s in knots and your mascara’s smudged. You deserve someone who remembers the way you take your coffee. You deserve someone who takes the time to learn all your insecurities, and why exactly you have them. You deserve someone who doesn’t judge you for them, someone who loves you regardless — someone who offers up assurance, not through their words, but through their actions. You deserve someone who thinks your arse is the perfect shape, and loves the slight dimple in your thigh, and strokes that stubborn roll of winter-laziness fat — because you have flaws, and so do they.
You deserve someone who makes you feel beautiful, someone who makes you feel special. You deserve to be someone’s first priority & in good time, chances are that you’ll find that person.
Know your worth!
Peace, happiness, love~
Heather Ann O'Donnell
