Proud.

At the end of the day, be proud of yourself, because you made yourself come through situations you thought you would die in. Be proud of yourself that you hold the courage to move on with your life despite of being pulled down at every step. Be proud of yourself for not letting failures get to you, and be proud of yourself for giving your best to everything you do.

Don’t forget how many times you’ve picked yourself off the floor, washed yourself and put yourself to sleep. Don’t forget how many times you’ve said no to unhealthy things, treated yourself with kindness, and tended to your wounds. You’ve made peace with your disturbed emotions more times than you can count, and if you can take care of yourself even when you were totally devastated, there’s nothing you cannot do.

Whether it’s letting certain people into our lives, or whether it’s taking bad decisions about our career, all of us have done things in our lives that we deeply regret. All of us end up hurting people we don’t want to or do things we wish we’d never do. So just like you, there are thousands of people out there who would give up anything in this world to go back in time and rectify those mistakes.

But that is no reason to think less of yourself. It’s very brave to accept the wrongs you’ve done in the past and feel guilty about them. You need to realise that you’re only human. You have to make mistakes in order to learn better, and you have to go through some experiences in order to know better. Ask for forgiveness. Whether you get it or not, accept the reality and move on. Hating yourself for doing those things is not going to do any good to you, but trying to be better than that will.

So remember that you’re doing your best. Believe that you can genuinely smile and laugh uncontrollably. Understand that you cannot change the past but you can definitely make your present better. Realise that you need to take control of what you do have power over instead of craving power over what you don’t. Learn that it’s okay to make mistakes and feel sad about them. You cannot be perfect, so learn to cherish your flaws and strive to be a better person every day.

Even with your ups and downs, be content with yourself. The world will always find a way to make you doubt yourself, but it’s up to you to decide what you want to believe and what you don’t.

Trust yourself. Believe yourself. You’re doing just fine, so be proud of yourself.