Those are very good questions to ask yourself. You need to love yourself first. A good therapist can help with that. You need to be gentle with yourself, have compassion for yourself, forgive yourself. Stop the negative self-talk that says you are worthless and unlovable. You're worth loving. But it has to start with you loving you.

Love always involves risk. You make yourself vulnerable to another person. It takes self-confidence and some guts to do that. If you love yourself better you can weather the blows when things don't work out.

I had to do a lot of work before I was able to love myself, and there are still moments when it doesn't happen. But I'm in a much better headspace today, and the inner critics don't bother me much anymore.