Stay Single Until You Can Honestly Say You Love Yourself

Instagram / Christian Acosta

Don’t date, because you think that it’s going to make you love yourself more. Because you don’t feel attractive and hope that attention from a boy will change that. Because you want to feel wanted.

Don’t date, because you hate going out alone and want someone to tag along to the movies and the mall. Because your loneliness is getting out of control. Because you’re sick of being by yourself and can’t last another day on your own.

You should only enter a relationship when you’re officially ready, after you find someone that matches you in all the right ways. Someone that will encourage you to embrace the woman you already are.

You can’t rely on a boy to bring you unlimited happiness and self-love. You have to find those things on your own.

That’s why you should stay single until you can say that you’re dating because you want a boyfriend and not because you need a boyfriend.

Stay single until you create a life of your own, until you realize that yes, relationships are important — but there are so many other things to live for, things that you shouldn’t give up in the name of love.

Stay single until you’re comfortable sitting alone, in the silence of your room, because you understand that you can’t spend every second of your time with your boyfriend.

Stay single until you can look at your reflection and smile instead of cringe, until you can call yourself beautiful even when you don’t have the approval of some boy.

Stay single until you have enough free time to balance love with work and your friends and your family, so that your boyfriend doesn’t become your entire world.

Stay single until you’re happy with the person you are, until you can say that you’re proud of yourself and everything you’ve accomplished so far.

Stay single until you reach the point where you don’t really care whether or not you’re in a relationship, until you realize that you don’t have to date in order to be happy.

Stay single until you decide that you deserve the best, that you shouldn’t settle for the first option that comes along.

Stay single until you decide you’re strong enough to handle a breakup, until you realize that even if your relationship doesn’t work out, it’s okay — because there’s nothing wrong with being unattached in your twenties.

Stay single until you find someone that you’re excited to call your boyfriend — not because you’re sick of being single, but because you genuinly like him and don’t want to watch him leave your life.

And when you find that guy, don’t forget any of the lessons you learned while single. How you don’t have to be loved by someone else to love yourself. How you can be happy without approval from others. How relationships aren’t everything.

Remember: You have enough room in your heart to love him — and to love yourself. Thought Catalog Logo Mark

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