For the longest time, I have battled many personal struggles. It has been hard to be kind to myself. There is often so much internal dialogue that counteracts the truths about me. While I can be kind to others, I often struggle to be kind to myself. This is especially true in my hardest moments.

Often I discount myself more than anyone else I know. At times, I feel inferior to others. I focus on the negative aspects of myself without being willing to see the positive. At times, it is necessary to be honest with those I trust. They remind me of the person I truly am. It can be so easy to point out all the issues that are wrong with myself. Instead, I should see the values I can bring. Believing in myself is essential to make it in this world.

So many people are overwhelmingly nice to me. Many times, I brush them off. I don’t see what they see in me. I want to believe of the person that I was growing up. The person that always has something wrong with me that needs to be corrected or addressed. For a very long time, stress influenced my ability to have a positive mindset. It also affected how happy I was with myself and life.

Part of being autistic means we can be our own worst critic. We are honest about how we are feeling. This honesty sometimes leads us to overlook the good parts in our lives. It can be hard to see the value in ourselves. We often struggle to know that we are better off than what we think. At times, it takes doing things that bring joy to our lives. This helps us see that we can be kind to ourselves. We can also love ourselves in the same way.

Deep down I know that I am an amazing person. During stressful moments, it can be hard to see clearly. Even though it seems hard or the worst thing in the world at that moment, it is not. I have to see that my stress does not define me. What defines me are the other things that make me the amazing person that I am. It is knowing that all human beings have challenges in their own way and are not perfect.

But it takes being kind to ourselves. We must know that one or several moments do not define who we are. They also do not define what we see. It is what we know about ourselves that matters. We have to remember that things outside of us do not define us. We are humans. We make mistakes and have bad days. Life isn’t always kind to us. Autistic people face many challenges. These challenges are not easy in any way. It is knowing that we do not let what surrounds or involves our lives is what defines us. We must be kind to ourselves, especially in our rawest moments. We should strive as much as we can to be the amazing person that I can be.