Not so many years ago, I found myself in a very dark state of mind. Circumstances had led me to a place where my perspective on my self-worth had grown terribly cloudy. I know many people have visited this same place, as the result of break-ups, or complicated familial relationships, or eating an entire box of pasta.

(Those last folks are my people. Fellow lovers of digestive science. “Can you actually fit a whole pound of cooked bow-ties in a human stomach?” “Yes! Yes, you can!” Just for the record, that doesn’t mean you SHOULD.)

When the mirror you are peering into gets so dirty that your vision of yourself starts to become distorted, it can be incredibly difficult to remember why you are worth loving — not least of all, why you are worth being loved by yourself. Though I tried to offer myself compassion and to remind myself what I brought to the world around me, dirty, warped mirror-me just kept smudging and smearing out each ray of sunshine.

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