I saved this quote from a member here, can't remember her name though. I thought it was really wonderful.
"I had to remember that there was a ME first, just ME, BEFORE I was a wife, before I was a mom and that ME was a full, complete, and whole person. I was not a HALF of anything. I was WHOLE back then and I was still WHOLE and the WHOLE of ME was outstanding, truly a fabulous human being. We forget that part. We get so embroiled in family and relationships, we forget where we came from and who we are.
Relationships are a truly nice part of life. They ENHANCE things (when they are good), they are like the icing on the cake but if you scrape the icing off of a cake, there is still a heck of a nice cake under there. It is firm and spongy and moist and sweet. That's YOU! One day you may find some more icing, maybe not. You can if you want to, there are all kinds -- chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, whipped, buttercream, fondant, cream cheese... (I prefer CHOCOLATE *cough*) but just remember always that your cake is rootin' tootin' tasty AS IS."
I will be back with more thoughts later. I think it's much harder than we realize to really know our worth though.
^^I LOVE this analogy! Thanks for reposting!
It's SO true.
You know what honestly OP...I've been there before (where you feel like after a break up you've lost your sense of self-worth), and I'm still working on it sometimes. But to be honest, the MAIN thing that helped me to know my self-worth was really just DOING little things for myself, improving myself, taking care of ME, and knowing my boundaries about what I would and would NOT tolerate.
Little things such as:
-Taking time out of each day for "Me time"
-Telling myself GOOD, positive thoughts
-pampering myself (ie. manicure, pedicure, massage, etc)
-Exercising regularly (I ALWAYS feel better about myself when I sweat it out at the gym!
)
-eating well
-Getting sufficient SLEEP
-Keeping my life (and my head) clutter-free...getting rid of junk, purging the needless things in life, keeping my surroundings CLEAN
- Working on improving myself (ie. reading up on self-help books, going to a therapist if needed, making sure my health--physical AND mental/emotional--is the best it can be)
-making sure I have a GOOD support group of family and friends
-Getting rid of (or severely limiting my time with) the naysayers/negative Nancy's and downers in my life.
Doing all of these little things for yourself just proves to yourself that you LOVE yourself. Even if you don't really feel it at first, when you continue to do these things, it will signify to your brain that you love yourself. And when you TRULY love yourself, you will automatically "know" your self-worth, and others will be able to sense it as well. It can be hard once someone or something has stolen your sense of self-worth, but it can ALWAYS be attained again.