Many people have self-doubt, self-loathing, and deep-seated feelings of inadequacy ingrained into them to the point that it is habitual. These habitual negative thinking patterns and limiting beliefs likely became imprinted into our malleable and vulnerable brains through authoritarian schooling, bad parenting, traumatic experiences, propaganda, or social conditioning.
These feelings of inadequacy and self-loathing can make life insufferable and may lead people to attempt to find their self-worth in material possessions, drugs, relationships, overworking, and other forms of escapism. Those who go through this will find that their need for validation and external stimulation will become a never-ending black hole, which means they can never find true long-lasting happiness, enjoyment, appreciation, and self-love on that path, only fleeting feelings of pleasure.
The Solution? Self-Acceptance
It is important for everybody to, every now and then, take some time to be introspective and to look within themselves. Take a deep look at everything about you and ask yourself what it is about you that you are denying or suppressing.
Authentic happiness comes from facing reality, seeing it clearly for what it is, and experiencing it fully. Avoiding reality and avoiding the truth about yourself will never bring you happiness, only bitterness and misery. When you can open yourself up to facing your past, your mistakes, and your flaws is when you can finally move past them and let them go. Those things which you don’t have control over, let them go and stop worrying.
Be at Ease With Yourself
Learning to meditate, to sit quietly and simply take in the entirety of your experience can be incredibly powerful. It teaches you to be calm, grounded, at ease, as well as to self-generate good emotions and feelings of appreciation and joy.
Many people need external stimuli to feel good and these feelings are very short-lasting, like sugar or caffeine spikes. Learning to generate and harbor those good feelings of joy and appreciation from a place of calm, ease, presence, and awareness can be a huge step towards liberating yourself from negative thinking patterns, habits, and limiting beliefs.