I can tell you straight up — I didn’t believe these statements for a looong time.
My inner dialogue was downright mean —
“You’re ugly” “You’re fat” “You’re stupid” “You can’t do anything right” “You’re a fake” — I could go on for days.
My self-hatred ran so deep that when my abusive (ex)husband would hurl degrading insults at me, I agreed with him.
Leaving him was one of the biggest steps I took to walk into loving myself.
And for me, one of the biggest obstacles to tear down was my mean inner voice.
Most of us don’t take stock of our own inner voice — which means, that beast is given the privilege to run rampant!
So answer honestly — how do you talk to yourself inside that glorious skull of yours?
Do you repeat harsh criticisms you received as a child?
Do you shout and berate and degrade yourself? — your actions? — your intentions?
Do you meet your failures, mistakes, and shortcomings with judgement and disappointment? Or do you meet them with grace and compassion?
Once I started to really check my voice and hold it accountable, I created a rule for myself:
I am only allowed to speak to myself the way I speak to my 6-year-old daughter.
(Hint: I only speak encouragement and love to her — lot’s of grace and compassion goes to my baby.)
You Can Change the Dialogue
I pray your self-loathing doesn’t run as deep as mine once did, but if you’re struggling or hurting or wondering if there’s more for you — I can tell you confidently that there is.
Start here — take some time to soak in some powerful, potent, true quotes from some pretty smart folks.
Let their words permeate your wounds and be a healing balm to your beautiful, magnificent, worthy soul.
And when you hear that inner meanie trying to speak up — remind yourself of my rule — speak to yourself the way you would to someone you love completely and unconditionally.
You Are Enough Quotes: 40+ BEST Quotes on Being Enough Click To TweetMargaret Fuller was a 19th Century American journalist, editor, critic, translator, and women’s rights advocate associated with the American transcendentalism movement. If you want to really plunge into loving yourself, it definitely helps to see yourself as magnificently as Margaret Fuller saw herself. It’s not only ok to recognize your own beautiful divinity — it’s absolutely necessary for a vibrant life.
2. Walk as if you are enough. Eat as if you are…
You Are Enough Quotes: 40+ BEST Quotes on Being Enough Click To TweetGeneen Roth is a New York Time bestselling author who helps people people transform their relationship with food, their body, and their lives by learning to be open, curious and kind to themselves. Geneen Roth does an excellent job of reminding us how to actively insert the certainty of being enough into our every day with this quote.
3. You can’t really love someone else unless you really love yourself…
You Are Enough Quotes: 40+ BEST Quotes on Being Enough Click To TweetFred Rogers (also known as Mister Rogers) was an American television host, author, producer, minister and creator and host of the preschool television series Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. Fred Rogers was an incredibly compassionate and caring man (go watch Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood if you don’t believe me), and he continues to preach the truth to us here — we can’t love others until we first love ourselves.
4. Loving yourself starts with liking yourself, which starts with respecting yourself,…
You Are Enough Quotes: 40+ BEST Quotes on Being Enough Click To TweetHafiz was a 14th Century persian poet whose collected works are regarded by many Iranians as a pinnacle of Persian literature. Love is the strongest and most powerful force in our universe. When we realize that and walk in it, we become unstoppable.
9. Forgiveness is healing…especially forgiving yourself.
You Are Enough Quotes: 40+ BEST Quotes on Being Enough Click To TweetAlyson Noël is a young-adult fantasy novelist best known for her Immortals and Riley Bloom series. We usually know the healing power forgiveness has on our relationships — but we often neglect to carry that healing power into our relationship with ourselves.
10. The practice of forgiveness is our most important contribution to the…
You Are Enough Quotes: 40+ BEST Quotes on Being Enough Click To TweetMarianne Williamson is an American political activist, primetime talk show host and author of multiple New York Times best-selling books. The ultimate beauty of walking daily in forgiveness (both toward ourselves and others) is the immense ripple effect it has on everyone around us.
You Are Enough Quotes: 40+ BEST Quotes on Being Enough Click To TweetMandy Hale is a blogger and New York Times best-selling author who helps inspire single women to live their best lives. Mandy Hale does a beautiful job here of reminding us not to take life — and all the work we put into it — too seriously. Loving ourselves and resting in who we are is work, yes, but it’s beautiful work done in a beautiful existence, and we only get to do it once. So enjoy it.
12. You will never gain anyone’s approval by begging for it. When…
13. You will evolve past certain people. Let yourself.
You Are Enough Quotes: 40+ BEST Quotes on Being Enough Click To TweetMandy Hale is a blogger and New York Times best-selling author who helps inspire single women to live their best lives. Self-love and self-work usually takes us in a direction different from where we come from — and it almost always leads us to transcend those around us. This can be scary, but we can’t let fear of this and the unknown stop or stunt our growth.
14. Self-kindness is self-empathy.
You Are Enough Quotes: 40+ BEST Quotes on Being Enough Click To TweetBrene Brown is an American professor, lecturer, podcast host and author of several life-changing books on being enough including Daring Greatly and The Gifts of Imperfection.It can be so easy to remember to be kind to others around us, and just as easy to forget to be kind to ourselves. Have empathy and compassion for yourself. You’re worthy of it.
15. You are imperfect, you are wired for struggle, but you are…
You Are Enough Quotes: 40+ BEST Quotes on Being Enough Click To TweetBrene Brown is an American professor, lecturer, podcast host and author of several life-changing books on being enough including Daring Greatly and The Gifts of Imperfection. And of course, Brene Brown beautifully reminds us that no matter how messy we may think we are, and no matter what we’ve come from and through — we are worthy. We are enough.
16. This life is mine alone. So I have stopped asking people…
You Are Enough Quotes: 40+ BEST Quotes on Being Enough Click To TweetGlennon Doyle is an American author and activist known for her #1 New York Times bestsellers Untamed, Love Warrior and Carry On, Warrior. This quote is a reminder to stand true in your path — stand true in your calling. No one else can be you, so be you with boldness and conviction.
17. When you recover or discover something that nourishes your soul and…
You Are Enough Quotes: 40+ BEST Quotes on Being Enough Click To TweetJean Shinoda Bolen is a psychiatrist, Jungian analyst, and author who specialises in archetypal psychology in women and men in the development of spirituality. Part of self-love involves knowing yourself and then tending to those desires and passions your self delights in. So as you explore yourself and unearth your deep-rooted longings, chase and nourish them. Life becomes far more colorful when you do.
18. Why should we worry about what others think of us, do…
You Are Enough Quotes: 40+ BEST Quotes on Being Enough Click To TweetBrigham Young was a 19th Century American religious leader and politician. He was the second president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Carrying on the theme that you alone must be true to yourself — you cannot look to others for validation and confirmation. Because odds are, they’ll get you wrong. Rest confidently and peacefully in the beautiful you that you are.
19. That true self-love and social are the same.
You Are Enough Quotes: 40+ BEST Quotes on Being Enough Click To TweetAlexander Pope was considered the foremost English poet of the early 18th century. Alexander Pope reminds us here once again that to love others, we must first love ourselves. Love is a universal language and an unmatched balm — what a beautiful world we’ll inhabit when we all rest in love — love for ourselves and, as a result, love for our neighbors.
21. You deserve to be the protagonist of your own wonderful, bizarre,…
You Are Enough Quotes: 40+ BEST Quotes on Being Enough Click To TweetKathy Brown is an American dance and house singer from South Carolina. Kathy Brown puts it perfectly with this quote — you need only rely on your own loving, kind heart to rest comfortably in validation. You are enough. You are enough. You are enough.
22. The truth is: Belonging starts with self-acceptance. Your level of belonging,…
You Are Enough Quotes: 40+ BEST Quotes on Being Enough Click To TweetBrene Brown is an American professor, lecturer, podcast host and author of several life-changing books on being enough including Daring Greatly and The Gifts of Imperfection. This quote reminds me of Ruiz’s book The Mastery of Love. In it, he teaches that we enter into relationships that represent how we intrinsically treat ourselves. So if you seek belonging (which we all do), then you must first start with yourself. Love and accept yourself, and you’ll find that you already do belong.
23. The fact that someone else loves you doesn’t rescue you from…
You Are Enough Quotes: 40+ BEST Quotes on Being Enough Click To TweetSahaj Kohli is the founder of Brown Girl Therapy, a mental health community for children of immigrants. Sometimes we have the great fortune of being loved fully and completely by another — but then sometimes we rest too comfortably in their love and forsake the hard work of loving ourselves.
24. Eat like you love yourself. Move like you love yourself. Speak…
You Are Enough Quotes: 40+ BEST Quotes on Being Enough Click To TweetTara Stiles is an American model turned yoga instructor and founder of Strala Yoga in New York City. For some very practical counsel on how to actively love yourself, have a look at this Tara Stiles’ quote. Next time you’re eating a meal, ask yourself how you would feed a creature that you’re madly in love with. Proceed accordingly.
25. I don’t like to gamble, but if there’s one thing I’m…
You Are Enough Quotes: 40+ BEST Quotes on Being Enough Click To TweetBeyonce Knowles-Carter is one of the world’s best-selling recording artists, having sold 118 million records worldwide. When it comes to self-love, Beyonce embodies the concept boldly and beautifully. Strive to hold yourself in such high esteem as this, and you’ll find yourself gliding in sparkling self-love.
26. We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who…
You Are Enough Quotes: 40+ BEST Quotes on Being Enough Click To TweetMartin Luther King Jr. was an American Baptist minister and activist who became the most visible spokesman and leader in the American civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968. Just as we can’t love others without first loving ourselves, we can’t love others if we don’t first forgive. Few are better equipped to speak on forgiveness than Martin Luther King Jr.
27. True forgiveness is when you can say ‘Thank you for that…
You Are Enough Quotes: 40+ BEST Quotes on Being Enough Click To TweetOprah Winfrey is an American talk show host, television producer, actress, author, and philanthropist. We are still in the process of learning and evolving if we look at our painful and challenging experiences as sources of pity instead of sources of growth. When you can look at a challenge with gratitude for what it brought you, you know you’re growing.
28. Daring to set boundaries is about having the courage to love…
You Are Enough Quotes: 40+ BEST Quotes on Being Enough Click To TweetBrene Brown is an American professor, lecturer, podcast host and author of several life-changing books on being enough including Daring Greatly and The Gifts of Imperfection. I don’t know about you, but boundary setting was an incredibly difficult task for me as I stepped more firmly into myself. But to love and honor yourself, you must embrace boundaries. If you struggle with the negative reactions of others, hop back up to quote #13.
29. There will be times when standing alone feels too hard, too…
You Are Enough Quotes: 40+ BEST Quotes on Being Enough Click To TweetBrene Brown is an American professor, lecturer, podcast host and author of several life-changing books on being enough including Daring Greatly and The Gifts of Imperfection. Brene Brown so eloquently and perfectly acknowledges the doubt we all face — often generously provided by people close to us — and reminds us with confidence that we can.
30. Self-care is never a selfish act—it is simply good stewardship of…
You Are Enough Quotes: 40+ BEST Quotes on Being Enough Click To TweetParker Palmer is an American author, educator, and activist who focuses on issues in education, community, leadership, spirituality and social change. Self-care can often feel like a selfish choice, but nothing could be farther from the truth. Remember — you absolutely cannot pour from an empty cup. Filling your cup so that others don’t have to, and so that you can pour into others, is one of the most selfless and noble things you can do.
31. One of the greatest regrets in life is being what others…
You Are Enough Quotes: 40+ BEST Quotes on Being Enough Click To TweetShannon L. Alder is an author and therapist best known for her work on codependency and narcissism. Self-love is about the self — and that means stepping brazenly into Who You Are. You will know no greater disappointment than living your life as others want you to instead of how you’re called to — and you’ll know no greater sweetness than living true to yourself and your calling.
32. You alone are enough. You have nothing to prove to anybody.
33. Respect yourself, love yourself, because there has never been a person…
You Are Enough Quotes: 40+ BEST Quotes on Being Enough Click To TweetOsho was an Indian godman, mystic, and founder of the Rajneesh movement. When you fully grasp the fact that you are the only you that will ever exist, you might find it easier to step into and love yourself. Give the world the gift of You.
34. Admit something: Everyone you see, you say to them, ‘Love me.’…
You Are Enough Quotes: 40+ BEST Quotes on Being Enough Click To TweetHafiz was a 14th Century persian poet whose collected works are regarded by many Iranians as a pinnacle of Persian literature. So many of us seek and search and thirst for love. We all do. As you begin to love yourself entirely and abide within that love, why not share that love with the world?
35. Celebrate the people in your life who are there because they…
You Are Enough Quotes: 40+ BEST Quotes on Being Enough Click To TweetMandy Hale is a blogger and New York Times best-selling author who helps inspire single women to live their best lives. As you love yourself fully, you’ll begin to set higher standards for what you will and will not accept. Surround yourself with others who love you just as much and just as unconditionally as you do.
36. When you make a mistake, respond to yourself in a loving…
37. So you’re a little weird? Work it! A little different? OWN…
You Are Enough Quotes: 40+ BEST Quotes on Being Enough Click To TweetMandy Hale is a blogger and New York Times best-selling author who helps inspire single women to live their best lives. Step fully into your intoxicating, unique, divine self — no matter what that looks like. When you do, life aligns right alongside you.
38. The truth is that falling hurts. The dare is to keep…
You Are Enough Quotes: 40+ BEST Quotes on Being Enough Click To TweetBrene Brown is an American professor, lecturer, podcast host and author of several life-changing books on being enough including Daring Greatly and The Gifts of Imperfection. As you journey along toward unapologetic self-love, you will stumble. Bravely getting back up and trying again is your superpower to fulfillment.
39. It’s OKAY to be scared. Being scared means you’re about to…
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