“It was my father who taught me how to value myself”
Most of the time we give mothers all the credit for the self-love and confidence their daughters have. We recently teamed up with many mothers this spring for them to share their perspectives on self-love and how to empower their daughters since we know women have a huge impact on self-love of the next generation.
However we are missing another piece of the puzzle. The fathers out their striving to do their best to teach their daughters as well.
Starting with my dad.
My dad has taught me just as much about self-love and confidence as my mother has and I am very fortunate to have both of these people in my life to teach me such valuable things.
Self-love is about loving yourself, even on the bad days. This can form from the relationships of trust, love, confidence and empowerment. I have learned all of these things from my dad and more especially through his teachings.
I couldn’t write this article without saying in many cases in my younger teenagers years, I wasn’t always close to my dad. I was the child who sometimes thought she knew it all, didn’t need help and could figure it out on my own.
I learned as I grew up how wrong I was and I came to appreciate just how much my dad had an impact on my growth in self-love and my journey to find it.
[ngg_images source=”galleries” container_ids=”5″ display_type=”photocrati-nextgen_basic_imagebrowser” ajax_pagination=”0″ order_by=”sortorder” order_direction=”ASC” returns=”included” maximum_entity_count=”500″]Dads are important for a daughters journey to self-love because of how they teach us different values and skills. They are important because they give us a perspective that we may have not taught about. My dad was and still is important on my journey because learning to have self-love is a never ending journey.
These key factors below are just some of the areas in which a father impacts his daughters self-love journey:
Confidence
My dad always has confidence in me even when I didn’t. I think in the moments of being unsure, knowing that someone is going to have your back and has confidence in the woman you are truly helps you push forward to succeed. Not only did he have confidence in me but he taught me the definition of what confidence was and how to have confidence in others so they know they aren’t alone either.
Empowerment
Empowerment is the buzz word that many people in today’s society are using but may not understand the definition. Empowerment plays off of confidence very well, the moment you have confidence in yourself you feel a sense of strength to become an empowering person and in my case an empowering woman. My dad was at the front line through all of this. By having confidence in me at such a young age and still to this day, I continue to feel empowered to control my life in the way I want to live it and empowered to push toward my dreams every day
Belief
Belief is another word that many people can take many ways and that is exactly how it is taken in this example as well. Belief for me, is through faith and through loving me. My family grew up with a strong faith and we were taught to believe in core values which I continue to still do. My dad was an example everyday of this, he taught me that through living life with these core values, you can impact lives. He not only taught me this through faith but believing in me when I was doubting myself. One of the best gifts a dad can do is just believe in their daughters. As I grew up, I probably changed my mind daily and still do sometimes, luckily for me, I have a dad who believes will always make the right decision
Character
Character builds someone and for me, I was surrounded with two parents with great personality and I like to say I have a mix of both. My dad is a genuine hard working, caring, compassionate and wonderful man who can literally have a conversation with anyone. He has taught me to be present in conversation, to go out of your way to help others, to find the good in every moment and to strive to be the best person you can be. He has taught me through action to forgive, to give back, and to not judge others.
Many people in my life doubted my ability, tried to bring me down and didn’t believe in what I was doing. Even though, sometimes my father and I didn’t agree, I knew someone had my back, wouldn’t judge me and love me for who I am.
I am the self-loving, empowering founder of Self Love Beauty because my role model is my father. We take for granted these people in our lives in my dad and they genuinely deserve to be thanked for helping each of us along our journey.
I know as I continue to get older, my thought process will continue to change and what matters will change too. I am grateful everyday that I have a strong man in my life who will be there for me throughout my journey.
So do me a favor and thank the people in your life that have been there through your journey to find self-love, tell them what they taught you and how they have helped. As society continues to blame men for many things going wrong, here is a glimpse of how a father really did help his daughter grow to become a self-loving human.
