When a woman becomes her own best friend life is easier. — Diane von Furstenberg

When a woman becomes her own best friend life is easier.

Author: Diane von Furstenberg

Insight: There's a particular loneliness that comes from waiting for someone else to validate you. You catch yourself checking your phone, hoping for a text that makes you feel seen. You replay conversations, wondering if you said something wrong. You make decisions based on what others might think rather than what actually feels right. But something shifts when you stop outsourcing your own approval—when you start treating yourself the way you'd treat someone you genuinely cared about. Being your own best friend doesn't mean becoming solitary or rejecting other people's affection. It means you stop performing for an imaginary audience inside your head. You can make a choice that seems unconventional without spending weeks justifying it to yourself. You can fail at something without narrating it as proof of your inadequacy. The internal chatter quiets down because you're no longer both the critic and the defendant in an endless trial. This isn't about arrogance or inflated self-esteem. It's actually practical. When you're your own ally, you recover faster from disappointment. You notice what genuinely makes you happy instead of what you think should make you happy. Relationships improve because you're not unconsciously demanding that others fill a void only you can fill. Life gets lighter when you stop treating yourself like an opponent and start treating yourself like someone worth rooting for.

Source: Own It: The Secret to Life, p. 4, 2014