One of my favorite quotes, by musician Lindsey Stirling, goes as follows, “Maybe my best isn't as good as someone else's, but for a lot of people, my best is enough. Most importantly, for me it's enough.” It's funny - this quote, especially now more than ever, has been applicable to all parts of my life. For me, it has been that constant reminder to keep on working, trudging, running, climbing, and striving through or up or for that goal, because you can andyou willmake it.

You are enough.

It's not that silly little quote you see in the stall of a public bathroom (although some people appreciate them, I find it cheesy). It isn't what your grandma tells you on every occasion that you see her (although that's nice, love you grandma). It is all of those things, but it's so much more than that, too. So commonly, certain points in our lives, we get into a really great relationship, or a good job, or into the school we have always dreamed of. Life is great, and all is well, and one day we stumble upon something to make us feel as though we don't deserve what we have been given or something that we have earned, and automatically, we talk ourselves down.

Recently, a close friend of mine, someone I hold really dear to my heart, called me crying, talking about all of the ways she feels as though she is so undeserving of a relationship that taught her so much, a boyfriend that loves her so much, and the time that is so precious to each and everyone of us, but too often the time we don't have enough of. It was really hard for me to see her that way, and to listen to her talk so lowly about herself because I know all of what she was saying just wasn't true. She is a person of extensive worth, just as anyone is, and a person who spends too much time believing she can't instead of doing what she knows she can.

But isn't that what we do so much of? Dig and dig and dig ourselves down into a place that is so far from where we want to be, that eventually coming out takes time, but the traveling journey is worth seeing the destination, and when we finally feel ourselves accepting these flaws and mistakes, we eventually understand that being enough for ourselves is all that really matters.

These ideas that the media puts into our heads of real "worth" is so wrong. The happiest parts of our lives take place around the dinner table with family, watching movies with friends, praying to God, and just loving ourselves. The media's ideas of fame, fortune, beauty, being slim, being in love, etc. are so minuscule and unimportant when we think about what really matters in life, and to be able to say that you love, and have loved, that you have given, and that you have thanked - that is what matters. The rest is just here for fun.

Take it from me when I say that if we all treated ourselves just as we treat our best friends or our children or anyone else for that matter, we would be a lot happier and life would be a lot easier. We are our biggest enemy, and virtually think ourselves into a state that could make anything seem impossible. When we live by our own ideas of perfection, our own standards of "normal", our own beliefs - that is when we can live most freely, and that is when we know the real value of being enough.