As the saying goes you need to love yourself before you can truly love someone else. Self-love can be the root of so many magical things in your life as well as the root of what is not coming into play for you. Having a high regard for yourself and happiness is the epitome of self-love.
Nicole Seawell founder of Sailor’s Sweet Life, LLC explains “The ultimate in self-love is knowing yourself and what truly makes you happy. Loving yourself allows you to handle the ups and downs of the days, months, years with more joy and less frustration.” Truly loving yourself is being self aware of who you are and being ok with that. Much of this comes with growth and just going through life but being able to take each hurdle life throws at you and make it part of your story. Eventually this will lead to a deeper love for yourself.
When you have a poor relationship with yourself, you are creating stress within the body. “When we have a poor relationship with our self, beating ourselves up for everything we do “wrong” versus giving our self grace, criticizing the person we see in the mirror instead of seeing our unique beauty or not going after our dreams because we don’t feel worthy, we’re creating stress in our bodies, which impacts our health and wellbeing.” shares Misha Vayner, a Holistic Health Coach & Wellness Blogger.
Removing thought patterns that have been engrained for so many years is extremely difficult especially in cases where this behaviour is generational. Recognizing these patterns is the first step towards falling in love with yourself.
If you are struggling on how to start giving yourself the love that you deserve here are a few tips that can help you transition your thinking and actions.
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Set mini goals in life: Setting mini goals to bring new energy into your life will help to deepen your self-love.
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Mirror exercise: Look yourself in the mirror daily, identify at least 3 things that you love about yourself. Try writing this on a post it to remind yourself of this discovery. Place it somewhere you can see it and sign it “love me”.
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Gratitude: A daily practice of gratitude is an excellent way to love all that you are. Recognizing all the aspects that make you YOU and being grateful for them is pivotal. Your appreciation for yourself will begin to increase gradually over time.
As your relationship with yourself increases, you’ll see the quality of your health and wellbeing increase as a result offering you self-love that can grow over time.
