Finding light in the darkest of places.
By Emily Ratay — Written on Apr 07, 2017
Life isn’t always easy. It goes without saying that you will undoubtedly have to deal with dark times in life — they can range from heartbreak and loss to feeling down on yourself.
These times don’t have to be big to someone else to be significant to you, because we all deal with the hard parts of life differently.
What makes us unique, though, is how we deal with the darkest times of life.
It’s so easy to give up and resign yourself to feeling sad, just letting life suck all the happiness and energy out of you.
If you ask yourself how many times you’ve thought, “oh well, it doesn’t matter” when something bad happened to you, would you run out of fingers to count on?
But learning how to be a more positive person — if not for others than for ourselves — is easier said than done.
Living in a family of mostly Type A personalities, I was often told to shake it off and move on with your life, but it’s not that simple.
Life will get you down and if you aren’t able to bounce back on your own, it’s important that you find another outlet to help you see that you are a valuable person and that dark times in life won’t keep you down.
After reading Radical Acceptance: The Secret To Happy, Lasting Love by YourTango’s CEO and founder Andrea Miller, I realized two things: that I can find light in my life and that I am worthy of love; loving myself, love from others, and love in whatever I choose to do in life.
Her words taught me that love does take time and while it can sometimes feel like the clouds aren’t going away, it’s still important to push myself to be positive.
If there’s no action, how can you expect a reaction?
Radical Acceptance has become my go-to guide for appreciating all things good in life (including myself), because we all deserve love, but more than that, we deserve a happy life.
If you're searching for the best quotes and memes to share with the people you love (or just want to feel inspired yourself) ... look no further! From the sweetest love quotes, inspirational sayings, and hilarious friendship truths, we've got you covered.
On remembering to take the time to love.
“Love is never wasted.” — Andrea Miller
On how love is an act of strength.
“Rather than acting from a place of weakness or scarcity, choosing to love is a choice that comes from abundance, from wisdom, from compassion.” — Andrea Miller
On learning to take care of yourself first.
“If you don’t take care of yourself and develop your best self, how can you give your best to others?” — Andrea Miller
On being a bad ass.
“There is room in this world for lots of beauty, success, love, and badassery, after all.” — Andrea Miller
On learning to love every bit of yourself.
“Life is too short. I know that’s easier said than done, but radically accepting your own shortcomings is every bit as important as radically accepting your partner’s.” — Andrea Miller
On trusting yourself to make the best decisions.
“You have great wisdom and can trust yourself to find the right answers from within.” — Andrea Miller
On saying yes to yourself.
“The ability to identify a desire, no matter how small it is, and then following through with it is such an amazing confidence boost. It’s saying YES to yourself.” — Andrea Miller
On letting go of control in life.
“Quit sweating the small stuff; let go of your tendency to control, blame and be defensive, and extend more empathy and compassion to yourself.” — Andrea Miller
On being worthy of love.
“Remember that you are worthy of tremendous love from others and yourself.” — Andrea Miller
On finding your confidence.
“Say no to the self-sabotage of being too narrow and judgmental. Have the confidence in yourself to open your heart and say yes!” — Andrea Miller
Related: "Radical Acceptance: The Secret to Happy, Lasting Love" is now on sale!
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