We’ve all heard of him, the great, somewhat elusive Oscar Wilde who wrote fantastic works, was insanely successful and was also arrested for being homosexual.

I decided to sleuth around, find things he said, read about his life, read his work. And it was hard to pick just one thing. Really hard.

There were tonnes of quotes about love and life, pain, loss. Everything he wrote had something in it in that you could write whole dissertations on!

However, I did have to find just one single quote.

And here it is –

“To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong relationship” – A quote from the comedy play “An Ideal Husband”

O.k. so it’s short, and the message is pretty simple, so why did I choose this one? Why, when there is probably a mountain of quotes I could write more about.

It’s because, dear readers, we have forgotten to love ourselves.

Love in the purest sense of the word, wholly, with complete devotion.

The world is a fast paced, cruel and unloving thing if you let it be. But if you slow down, just for a day, sit with yourself and remember just how amazing you really are, it is much less cruel.

We go through each day in this unthinking way where we wake up and night has set before we even know it.

Embrace these hours. Really fully embrace them. Live each moment and, dear readers, love yourself.

Mr. Wilde says it best, it is the beginning of a life long relationship.

Now the world is so full of plastic surgery, body issues, confidence issues, mental illnesses, hate crimes  (the list goes on), that it is easy to get lost in the blur of unclear thoughts.

And I don’t want to lie to you, I myself struggle with these things on a daily basis. We are all human.

We are all beautiful, imperfect, unclear, un-photoshopped, complex humans.

And we deserve to love ourselves.