It’s inevitable that after a few bad breakups or after a few bad relationships, you start guarding your heart and protecting yourself from falling in love again. You begin to freak out when you start liking someone instead of feeling excited about the potential of that person or the connection. Sometimes you take a step back and convince yourself that you don’t need that kind of connection or attachment again because you got used to being on your own and you like it that way.

Bad relationships teach you how to be better and kinder to yourself. They teach you that if you keep projecting all the love you have for people on them and neglect yourself, you’ll soon be depleted of love. They teach you how to focus on supplying yourself with all the qualities you’re looking for in a partner. They teach you that if you can provide yourself with everything you need from others, you’ll never again get into a relationship or get attached to someone for the wrong reasons.

While it’s a wonderful accomplishment to become self-sufficient so that love becomes a sweet treat instead of a necessity, it also becomes an obstacle when you’re getting to know someone. Your mind automatically thinks that opening up is wrong. It tricks you into believing that you’re better off without it.

Because the truth is, the right relationships add more to who you are, they show you a side of you that you may not really reveal to others, they make you change all the stubborn beliefs you’re secretly not so fond of and they make you a softer person. The right relationships remind you that giving love and being with someone you can share your life with is one of the most beautiful feelings in the world.

We all want to avoid getting our heart broken again or feeling like we’re always making the same mistakes or the same choices, but some people are worth the risk. Some people are worth letting your guard down. Some people come into your life to prove to you that they’re not all the same. That sometimes when you let the right people in, they change your life in the most beautiful way and inspire to become the best version of yourself. When you let the right people in, they show you that being vulnerable is sometimes the purest form of self-love. That love truly blooms when it’s not inhibited.