For many of us, self-love might sound like a luxury rather than a necessity, however, self-love is your secret weapon to living a fulfilling life. That’s because your inner world creates your outer world. Before you can receive love and respect from others, you must love and respect yourself. Loving yourself means not only accepting but also valuing who you are. It’s about holding yourself in high esteem, respecting yourself, and feeling confident in your skin.
Self-love is having a relationship with yourself that has compassion, kindness, patience, tolerance and curiosity. It is about believing in and trusting yourself and your intentions.
When you hold yourself in high esteem, you are more likely to choose things that nature your well-being and serve you well. These things might be in the form of eating healthy, exercising or having healthy relationships. You express your love for yourself by doing things that help you to show up in life as the best version of yourself. Developing self-love takes time so you must practise it daily.
Below we have gathered a few benefits of self-lovefor you:
Developed a healthy lifestyle - Living a healthy lifestyle is difficult for most people, but it can be done to help you reach your goals. During the journey of loving yourself, you’ll want to give your body everything it needs: healthy food, water, sleep and exercise.
Nourishing personal growth - the process of self-love promotes self-growth. You have to understand yourself and what's good and bad for you. Cutting the toxic relationship, toxic people out of your life will help your mental and physical being. When you develop self-love, what and who you lose, will have space to be replaced with those who truly love and respect you.
Restored balance - How? Less time juggling and more time focusing on your daily life and tasks, one by one without thinking of what others may need from you. You will be able to balance the needs of others around what you need to accomplish or take care of whose life depends on you, like your children or maybe elderly relatives. Everyone else can wait...
Freedom - most importantly, self-love will set you free. Think about it what can hold you back when you are your own best friend, genuinely loving, and supporting yourself throughout your entire life journey? You are free to be yourself. Self-love is the beginning of allowing yourself to blossom into everything that you are.
What is the best way to practice self-love? Below we’ve gathered a few ideas on how to practise self-love:
Get some good night sleep - start paying attention to your sleep routines. It’s not just about how much sleep you get, it’s the quality that matters.
Quit self-criticising - It’s time to love yourself for who you really are and be proud of the things you are good at.
Digital re-think - giving social media and the online world a break might be a good idea, just to give your mind a little rest. Constantly looking at other people’s filtered lives on social media can lead you to feel a bit rubbish about yourself. So it might be a good idea to limit your social media use to a set time each day.
Exercise - incorporating any form of exercise into your everyday routine leaves your mind feeling positive and ultimately happier. And when done consistently, exercise could help reduce long-term feelings of depression and anxiety, and in turn, can help you maintain a healthy sense of self-confidence.
Do what you say you will do - If you want to be proud of yourself and who you are, take action. When you say you will do something, do it! Every time you take action and achieve something, you build confidence in yourself.
Do things differently - if what you are doing isn’t working for you and you are having a hard time letting go of the past, try to do things differently from the way you usually do things. Do things in a new way on purpose and see how that feels.
We hope this little guide will help you on your journey to achieving the utmost happiness while honouring who you are and who you want to be. By being grateful for what you have, you will be able to accept who you are and what you feel - a crucial step towards loving yourself.
