TW: Mental Health.
A Letter on 4 Things I Wish I Told my Younger Self
1. Stop silencing your inner voice. It is screaming out loud, just to be heard, understood, and comforted. Listen to it, value it, honor it, and learn from it. Listening to my inner voice brought me closer to my passion, my dreams, my true ambitions, and how I can make a living out of doing these.
2. It is okay to cry: its okay to not be okay, don’t hold back your tears. We all feel emotions differently and with a different level of intensity. If you can’t control the wave, that’s okay, if it topples you over, that’s okay too, I promise you this will all only make you better at surfing/overriding it. No, it is not all in your head and no you are not being too sensitive! Crying or ‘being sensitive’ is not a weakness! Suppressing your emotions and ‘having it all together’ is not a strength; ‘NOT CARING IS NOT COOL!’, no matter how much figures of authority (such as elders in the family) and friends around you seem to show otherwise. All your emotions are VALID, none of them are ‘too crazy or stupid, too loud or intense’. From losing your best friend in school to finding yourself in University, every emotion was, is and will always be VALID.
3. Love your body the way it is! We’re not here to look like each other- no one else is you, and that’s your superpower! You don’t have to appeal to others (often European) standards of beauty- I love all your features- your big eyes, your big hair, your big nose, and your lips (and even your accent-just the way it is)!! You don’t need crazy apps to compare your features with that of models, or with that of your other friends for that matter. No number or ranking will ever do justice to the beauty that dwells inside you, on you and around you.
Why does neat hair have to mean straight, tamed hair; I like my hair the way I like myself-loud, crazy, sometimes messy, and always bouncy (and no I don’t mean it in a kinky way)! I’m so happy and proud I started taking (and posting) filter-less pictures this year!
4. Stop trying to always be nice and sound polite! As a woman, I always felt my worth is in being ‘proper’, but if being bold, fearless, loud, weird and crazy makes you feel more alive, then do that! PS: I have one of the loudest, craziest laughter sound (and I loveeee it).
Yours truly,
20-year-old (beaming with pride) You
---- Nikita Asnani, Guest Blogger from Mind Aware
