Love yourself and you will be able to truly love others

My mother said the other day, "Nobody's looking for Happiness"
I paused for a moment, thinking she didn't realize what she was saying, and then burst out laughing. It

scared me to see the seriousness of her expression, which I could tell she was questioning.
How preachy is the title of this post?? Love yourself and you will be able to truly love others
But strangely, I think it's true.
It was an impulsive thought when I wrote it first. Something I may have seen somewhere, read somewhere and

have adopted because it is now a part of me. There is more to living than the skepticism, manipulation, fear,

asceticism, doubt, insecurity............................I'm not even go there, at least not now. I was

trying to remember the things that we appreciate when these are not around.........
happiness, love, pleasure, fascination, peace........are just a few.....but even a few of these are more

pleasurable than many of the previous list.
Today it's a bit hard to love myself, with so many factors, people trying to make me feel otherwise.
As a child though, my mother taught me to love myself. Who I was, 'a loving child', kindness, caring.
She taught me how to be considerate and how to share and then she praised me as to how considerate and giving

I was.
And as I grew up more, also for what I looked like, I think somewhere subconsciously she understood the

importance of strenghtening my confidence in myself about how I looked to help me bloom into a nice person.
I learnt to love myself and always seemed to find a way to move beyond complications and not be pulled down

in life. The sad times made me sad. The troubling times troubled me and complications made life difficult.

But, I managed to stay happy because I didn't despise myself or hate myself or think low of myself.
It is harder as you grow up, because there are people and things which are constantly causing you to question

yourself and your own worth. And if you don't value yourself, you will not really be happy. And in turn, you

will not be able to truly make others happy.
Love yourself. Parents, love your children and help them to love themselves. Each one is special and each

needs to be loved. I think we should all be happy.
As soon as I mentioned that, I heard the skeptics in my head say "yeah, right!" and I smiled.
I don't know how many people will see this, I hope lots of people do. I will keep working to spread the

happiness and love and not stop loving myself in the process : )