What is Self Love?
Self-love means that you accept yourself fully, treat yourself with kindness and respect.
Self-love encompasses not only how you treat yourself but also your thoughts and feelings about yourself. So, when you conceptualize self-love, you can try to imagine what you would do for yourself, how you’d talk to yourself, and how you’d feel about yourself that reflects love and concern.
Most of the time, when we’re being hard on ourself, it’s because to be in the desire to be the best version of ourselves. This involves lots of self criticism and that voice inside us that tells us that we could’ve done better.
Importance of Self Love –
When you’ve spent years cultivating this inner bully, you develop an unconscious reflex to put yourself down for every minor thing, no matter how ridiculous or absurd.
The first step of self-love is realising that we are only human and it is okay to make mistakes; it is okay to lose at times; it is okay to not have the best day…week…or month.
All we need to do is love ourselves and let the negative things pass through; eventually things will change and bad times will pass.
Self-love has many benefits; the first benefit is greater life satisfaction. When we love ourselves more we instantly change our perspective of the world. Self-love can give us a more positive attitude towards life.
The second benefit of self-love is that it can encourage us to pick up good habits. Self-love means loving your body, soul, and mind. Therefore, people who love themselves often refrain from doing things that will have an impact on their tranquility. Thus, it can help us adapt healthy habits.
Another important benefit of self-love is better mental health. People who love themselves are less likely to suffer from anxiety or depression; self-love also paves the way to a positive mindset which is an essential ingredient for success in life and for mental wellbeing.
How to show yourself self love –
1. Become Mindful
People who have more self-love tend to know what they think, feel, and want. They are mindful of who they are and act on this knowledge, rather than on what others want for them.
2. Act on what you need rather than what you want
You love yourself when you can turn away from something that feels good and exciting to what you need to stay strong, centred, and moving forward in your life, instead. By staying focused on what you need, you turn away from automatic behavior patterns that get you into trouble, keep you stuck in the past, and lessen self-love.
3. Practice good Self-Care
You will love yourself more, when you take better care of your basic needs. People high in self-love nourish themselves daily through healthy activities, like sound nutrition, exercise, proper sleep, intimacy and healthy social interactions.
4. Set Boundaries
You’ll love yourself more when you set limits or say no to work, love, or activities that deplete or harm you physically, emotionally and spiritually, or express poorly who you are.
5. Protect Yourself
Bring the right people into your life. I love the term frenemies that I learned from my younger clients. It describes so well the type of “friends” who take pleasure in your pain and loss rather than in your happiness and success. My suggestion to you here: Get rid of them! There isn’t enough time in your life to waste on people who want to take away the shine on your face that says, “I genuinely love myself and life.” You will love and respect yourself more.
6. Forgive Yourself
We humans can be so hard on ourselves. The downside of taking responsibility for our actions is punishing ourselves too much for mistakes in learning and growing. You have to accept your humanness (the fact that you are not perfect), before you can truly love yourself. Practice being less hard on yourself when you make a mistake. Remember, there are no failures, if you have learned and grown from your mistakes; there are only lessons learned.
7. Live Intentionally
You will accept and love yourself more, whatever is happening in your life, when you live with purpose and design. Your purpose doesn’t have to be crystal clear to you. If your intention is to live a meaningful and healthy life, you will make decisions that support this intention, and feel good about yourself when you succeed in this purpose. You will love yourself more if you see yourself accomplishing what you set out to do. You need to establish your living intentions, to do this.
If you choose just one or two of these self-love actions to work on, you will begin to accept and love yourself more. Just imagine how much you’ll appreciate you when you exercise these seven-steps to self-love. The more self-love you have for yourself, the more you will have self confidence.