When you love yourself, you naturally value yourself and the gifts, skills, experience, and wisdom that you have to share. You become discerning with your time and energy. You think before you act. You no longer feel obligated to be in relationships with people who don't resonate with you, support you, and truly accept and love you as you are.
When you love yourself, you value your intuition, your inner knowing, that inner compass that guides you and just knows things that you can't explain. You listen to that voice, your voice, above the voice of any other. You no longer feel compelled to act as others wish you to act. You no longer feel compelled to fit in, obey, follow societal norms, or keep quiet and stay small. You actually begin to alienate friends and family, to even scare people. Who are you to dare to be different, to shine your light so brightly?
When you love yourself, you no longer want to waste your time or energy on things that don't truly matter to you. People quit soul crushing jobs, change careers abruptly, leave unfulfilling relationships, move to different cities or even countries, take up new hobbies, try things they have always wanted to try but never had the courage to try before. You realize there is no failure in trying. The real failure comes from not being true to who you really are and living a small, scared life.
When you love yourself, you find that you are okay with standing out, with being different, with even being alone. You realize that you don't want to fit in any longer, not at the expense of your beautiful uniqueness. You realize you deserve to be who you are and no longer care whether people like you or not. You did not incarnate to be popular, after all, but to be the best version of yourSelf that you could be.
When you love yourself, you embrace all that you are, light and shadow, but you don't shrink away from any of it. You realize it has all made you who you are this very moment, and you are proud of who you are. You love who you are. You derive real joy in being yourSelf. Once you achieve this, nothing can ever really throw you off balance anymore. You have developed deep roots, like a very big, old tree, and no matter how crazy your life seems, you stay firmly grounded in who you are and make choices from your heart-center.
When you love yourself, you are able to truly love and accept others just as they are. You stop feeling the need to try and control others. People will still exacerbate you, even piss you off, but you roll with difficult situations way easier. You get better at knowing when to stand up for yourself and your boundaries and when to walk away from someone altogether.
When you love yourself, you no longer beat yourself up. You have compassion for yourself. You talk lovingly to yourself, and you act with more ease, grace, integrity, and honesty. You treat yourself like you would a very dear friend. After all, it is far better to be your own best friend than your own worst enemy. Loving and valuing yourself will make everything else in life so much easier and fulfilling.