Love?!:)

When you love someone, you love the whole person, just as he or she is, and not as you would like them to be

- Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina

This is easier said than done.

I am in love with the concept of love. The love that is in most of the Nicholas Sparks novels, or the kind of love that is shown in the movies or even the kind that is on social media:). But the more I think about it, the more I feel that it's the people involved who make the love special. Basically, they write the story.

Think about any story that you have heard of or read; even though the characters, the challenges that they have faced, the nature of their relationship, are all different, it makes sense to us because the people involved making us feel that. They are so madly deeply in love that we fall in love with that 'love'. We even fall in love with vampires and werewolves!! I guess the recent crush is Simon Basset, from the show Bridgerton.

To feel that in real life, it's most important to know and love yourself. Being confident in your own skin. If you aren't, then you would constantly be questioning your significant other's love for you. If you feel that you aren't your partners equal in the relationship, if you have low self-esteem, you would constantly be disgruntled and unhappy.

Like Shashi (Sridevi) says in the movie English Vinglish

Nobody can help you better than you. If you do that, you will return back feeling equal. Your friendship will return back. Your life will be beautiful.

The 1st step is identifying the problem, once you know that then you can start working on the solution. All of us have room for improvement. It could be baby steps...

• If you want to be more fit, start with eating right and maybe working out for 10 minutes a day.

• If you want to be financially independent, focus on learning and upskilling yourself. Weekly 30 minutes of learning, and the right savings/investments.

Take the 1st step and the rest will follow.

Don't burden somebody else with the responsibility of making you happy, you do that for yourself. Love is a beautiful feeling, just enjoy and cherish it.

And always remember, It's beautiful being YOU!