Lindsey Stirling on How She Battled and Overcame Depression

Why is it so hard to love ourselves?

I don't know.

(upbeat string music)

I went through depression when I was in my late teens

and early twenties.

I remember just looking at other people and seeing

that they were happy and wishing, why can't I be happy?

Why is that person so optimistic?

And why am I stuck in this negative mind?

And why don't I want to get out of bed in the morning?

Why do I look in the mirror and think, I am so ugly?

And in hindsight, I have realized that self-esteem takes

a lot of work.

And I think it takes a lot of work for everybody.

And loving yourself is the most important battle

that you have to face.

And it's something we all have to face our entire life.

Because a lot of women, in particular,

are so hard on ourselves.

And we want to be beautiful.

We want to be perfect.

We want to be everything that we thought we would be

when we were little girls dreaming of being princesses.

But, it takes work.

And when I used to have this mindset,

that oh, that girl's just naturally happy,

or that girl's just naturally confident.

I think a lot of times we just put on our best

confident armor and we walk out into the world and you

fake it til you make it.

I still do things on a daily basis to make sure

that my mind is in the kind of state I want it to be.

And I think we have to find out what makes us happy.

And what we have to do to in order to be that person

we want to be.

And, me personally, I do positive thinking exercises.

I do meditation.

And does this mean I'm perfect and happy everyday?

No. But I am so much better off.

And so much happier.

And so much more in control of who I want to be versus

the girl that suffered from depression several years ago.

What I learned is that happiness is possible.

It's there.

It's tangible for every single one of us.

Confidence is there.

We just have to work at it.

And everybody does.

(upbeat string music)