Love Your Self and to Yourself Be True

Mankind has always been a highly narcissistic yet very insecure animal. This terrible combination of contrary psychological mindsets leads to an extreme problem with vanity and a myriad of identity issues. The conclusion I come to after observing human nature is that there two different forms of vanity which are fostered from both narcissism and insecurity. Narcissistic vanity is where a person is overly obsessed with their personal appearance and/or personality traits. Insecure vanity is what you get when a person is so unhappy with their appearance or personality traits that they become overly defensive of those same characteristics whenever any criticism is made with respect to those characteristics. Both types of vanity can lead to irrational behavior and the feeling of needing to change some aspect of yourself to either better or preserve your appearance and/or identity.

Too often do you hear people complaining about some aspect of themselves; be it their appearance, habits, lifestyle, sexual orientation, or gender. The fact remains there is a major issue with people not accepting themselves for who and what they are and seeking to change themselves for whatever reason. I hold to the philosophy that if you are truly happy and accept yourself for who and what you are then you do not desire to change, and if you feel you need to change something about yourself I advocate that you ask yourself what makes you feel that way. From my personal experiences and observations, I find it is often society's social norms and ideals that fill people's heads with the delusion of needing to change themselves. If you went through life without anyone ever telling you you were ugly and comparing your appearance to some other person's physical features you would never know that you were supposedly ugly and therefore would be perfectly content with how you looked. If no one ever ridiculed you about your weight then you would likely think nothing of being "overweight" (exception of course to the health issues which arise from being too overweight). If no one ever criticized or demonized you for your lifestyle or sexual orientation then you'd never even think there was a problem, and in a world without gender roles no one would ever think they were born as the "wrong sex", and men and women could be as feminine or masculine as they pleased without feeling the need to have radical changes done that mutate and mutilate the body.

I mean I have quite a host of "flaws" both physical and psychological that society would ridicule, yet I do not seek to change myself. I am a very short and meager individual. I stand at only 5 feet tall and weigh a mere 90 pounds, but instead of looking at that as a flaw or a handicap I take advantage of my small body's quickness and maneuverability, I put my faith in brains over brawn, and supplement my weaker physique with martial arts. I am schizophrenic and have multiple personalities, but neither do I allow these things to weaken me. In fact, it is from my schizophrenic hallucinations that I derive much of my creativity. The voices and multiple personalities in my head are also the characters who make up my original stories and comics. My so-called insanity is the creative source for all my art. I am an antisocial loner, but instead of moping about it, I use the countless hours of loneliness and isolation to focus on my work and meditate on myself and the world around me. I have years of pent up rage and suffer from constant depression, but I redirect it through more creative and constructive mediums. I'm a transspecies individual who identifies more with birds, cats, and reptiles, and though there are times when I fancy having claws, fangs, wings, and a tail; I accept that I have the mind of a non-human in a human body. I am at peace with myself and therefore do not feel the need to change who or what I am.

The key to true happiness is coming to terms with who and what you are, finding balance, and coming to peace with yourself. When you silence out all the outside influences and just open yourself to your innermost being you will feel no need to change. You'll no longer obsess over yourself and your flaws. You'll just be content and live life as you are meant to. Never let society or even your own troubled mind tell you there is something wrong with you. You are who and what you are. If you cannot find peace in that then you will never truly know peace.