have you been a friend to yourself?

Soemtimes it feels like I am my own worst enemy, and that I criticize myself too much I need to stop because being hard on myself only makes things far more difficult than they need to be.

When we put ourselves first, we tend to feel guilty, we feel that we are being selfish and self-centred, but don't we have the right to put ourselves first? No one else is going to look after us more than we can do? Sometimes we can be our worst enemy, punishing ourselves for our short-comings, for failing in life, for not achieving, not getting that perfect job, the perfect life, so we tell ourselves we are not worthy. When instead we should be loving ourselves and praising ourselves and telling ourselves that we are worthy, we do deserve to be happy. When you put others first, you are not respected, you are just seen as a doormat, someone to walk over and use, then you lose your self-respect and self esteem.