An important step in being happy with yourself and grounding your happiness with yourself is self-acceptance.

As self explanatory as it sounds, many people don't apply it. They beat themselves down and don't understand their own worth. Many of my friends haven't accepted themselves.

At my lowest point, I was diagnosed with Depression and Anxiety, both severe. I considered myself broken beyond repair. It added to my already grey and empty feeling from the breakup I had a week before. I couldn't accept me. Before this I would always say dejected things and say, "I hate myself."

It's pitiful.

The first steps to being happy, that I learned, is to accept who you are, accept where you've come from, accept the circumstances. There are certain things that you cannot change and in that case why worry about it, height for example. There are things that you can change and in that case, why beat yourself down and say such dejected and miserable things rather than do something about it.

Accept that you may need help, accept that you aren't perfect, but accept that you are beautiful. There is no person more or less unique than you and it is important to realize we all have something we can give. We have an outlook to share, a talent to give.

Accept who you are because you are the only one of you in existence, why not find beauty in that. I learned this through my many tears and my many breakdowns. In this moment and for all eternity, I love myself.

But it all started with self-acceptance.