3 Things That Make Life Harder According To Yung Pueblo
These are the foundation of everything
Yung Pueblo is a poet, meditator, and speaker. With his works, he shares a collection of poetry and prose that explores movements from self-love to unconditional love, the power of letting go, and the wisdom that comes when we truly know ourselves.
The man behind the name ‘Yung Pueblo’ is Diego Perez.
Yung Pueblo means “young people” and he chose it because it reminds him of his Ecuadorian roots, his experiences in activism and that the collective of humanity is in the midst of extraordinary growth.
Through his words, he hopes to support the healing of the individual, realizing that when we release our personal burdens, we contribute to global peace.
In his new book, ‘Inward’, he shares a curated collection of his teachings from the past three years. One, in particular, had me going over it repeatedly. In this poem, he shares the three things that make life harder.
Not Loving Yourself
It seems as though people who love themselves never genuinely worry or become agitated because they have managed to reach a perfect state.
It may even feel like they’ve discovered ultimate peace and self-actualization, which, in psychologist Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, is the highest level of psychological development where the “actualization” of full personal potential is achieved. It occurs only after basic and mental needs have been fulfilled.
Self-love is the epitome of living a fulfilling life. When you love yourself, you’re able to love others in a way they deserve to be loved. When you don’t love yourself, you’re unknowingly projecting your insecurities and fears upon other people.
In the words of Yung Pueblo:
“Loving yourself is not selfish, it is essential to your wellbeing and the wellbeing of the world.”
How to apply:
Learning to love yourself won’t happen overnight; it’s an ongoing process. And understanding that you lack the capacity for self-love is a step in the right direction.
Life is always moving forward, whether you want it to or not. Loving yourself is crucial because it builds confidence that you can reach your goals and face any problem that comes your way; that you’re not going to be left behind because you’re able to keep up with life.
Sometimes you will be angry and agitated. Other times you will feel sad or hurt. When you allow for these miserable feelings to dominate, they become familiar. Similar to an old friend who you know well, but are you’re grateful when they leave.
Take a couple of deep breaths and focus on releasing the belief that you can never love yourself and, therefore, never fully enjoy life or love others. This is a total falsehood.
You can love yourself, and you probably do every day, but you’re unaware of the process.
Part of loving yourself involves recognizing your good qualities.
It’s not comparing your level of success to others, but comparing your efforts from the previous day to today.
It’s self-care rituals that seem borderline silly (i.e., exercise, skincare, hydration, treating yourself, enjoying your hobbies, eating healthy, etc.). Yet, they still do because you’re innately allowing your brain to think: “I am worthy of the love I give myself.”
So instead of always putting yourself down, focus on your inner self in the best light:
I’m proud of myself for giving my body 30 minutes of movement.
I’m happy I made the time to read my favorite book today.
I’m so grateful to be in this body, have this skin, this strength, the ability to live and function well.
I’m so proud of myself for the work I did this week, last week I barely scratched the surface, now I’m making leaps.
Refusing To Grow
Growing older is inevitable, but internal growth is a choice.
“Allow yourself to transform as many times as you need to be fully happy and free.” — Yung Pueblo
There are certain situations that we or life puts us in that triggers our internal desire for self-development.
It could be problems or struggles in life that lead people to make life-altering decisions to make changes within their life, or it could simply be that you get inspired after reading a good self-help book.
Whatever your reasoning may be, that trigger often leads you to new paths to expand your knowledge and gain self-awareness.
How to apply:
Personal growth will help you in every single aspect of your life.
It can help you both in business and personal life — it can strengthen your relationships with others and, more importantly, with yourself.
You’re going to go through many phases in life that make you question who you are and what your purpose is, but that’s the key to all of this, you need to ask yourself these questions to become self-aware.
You need to understand how you can grow emotionally, how to identify your mistakes and bad habits, and how you can change to become better and reach your fullest potential.
Luckily, personal growth is not a one-way street. There are many techniques you can utilize, several books you can read, and a ton of ways to reach your fullest potential.
The most simple and basic tool you can use is simply looking at yourself and your behavior and asking yourself:
Is this really who I want to become?
Is this the type of personality I want to be known for?
What legacy am I leaving behind?
When I’m on my deathbed, will I be happy or embarrassed by the course of my life?
Did I provide value to people?
By practicing this and asking yourself these questions, you’ll be able to recognize both your positive and negative traits of character. And ultimately, this will allow you to learn what you need to improve on, and you will be able to identify which necessary changes you need to make within yourself and your life.
Not Letting Go
Unfortunately, holding on to pain doesn’t fix anything.
I use the word ‘unfortunately’ because I wish that holding on to pain meant that eventually, our suffering would be justified, and somehow we would feel compensated for it.
Living in the past doesn’t change history, and praying for things to have turned out differently will never make it so.
All you can do is accept the pain of whatever it is you’re holding on to and then let it go.
Better things are coming your way.
You have to let go of what is hurting you, even if it feels impossible to forgive or forget.
Growing pains were never meant to be easy.
Holding on to the past will hinder you from creating a strong sense of self — one that isn’t defined by your past, but rather one that is determined by who you are now and who you will become in the future.
“Letting go doesn’t mean forgetting, it just means we stop carrying the energy of the past into the present.” Yung Pueblo
How to apply:
Accept the person that you are today.
Accept yourself for the flaws, the imperfections, the quirks and moods.
Everything you have ever been put through — led you to this exact moment. It led to your desire for more, it led you to the environment that you’re in, the bed you sleep in, and the shoes you walk in.
Things seldom go as planned — and it’s important to understand that it’s okay.
Always having expectations will keep you stuck because they will lead you to fear outcomes if they don’t align with your plans.
There are no guarantees in this life.
There’s nothing you can do to ensure you get your desired result because life gets messy, and it has its own way of thinking.
You can set yourself up for success, you can do all the right things, but eventually, you’re going to have to let go and let life run its course.
Bring yourself out of the past and into the present moment. The present is where life happens, put your past in a box and lock it up and throw it in the ocean. You can’t change anything; you can’t even change your own actions, so why waste time dwelling on the past?
You are in control of your life right now, and you can only make decisions today to help how your future turns out.
Bottom Line
While those three things are only a fraction of the work that Yung Pueblo has written, and there are so many other things that make life challenging, those three things are the foundation of everything.
Learning to love yourself is the purest form of intimacy with yourself.
It’s how you will learn to communicate with others and form relationships; it’s how you gain a better sense of awareness.
Growth teaches you to grow emotionally and psychologically to become a more loving, compassionate, and positive person.
And, forgiveness and letting go are what will free you and allow you to live in the present.
“Sometimes growth hurts, but it is the type of pain that is easier to endure because it is helping us come forward as a better version of ourselves.” — Yung Pueblo