What is self-love, and how to start practicing it?
Why is Self-Love Important?
Every single day we are bombarded with stress and responsibilities. The opinions of others ring in our ears and we look in the mirror and don’t like what we see.
You are the only person that’s with you all day. You know all of your thoughts and feelings. If there was someone in your life that constantly treated you poorly by saying you’re not good enough, pretty enough, or worth fighting for, you would hopefully kick that person out of your life! So, don’t treat yourself that way.
How do you practice self-love?
Self-love is a great practice that doesn’t need to take extra time or money. The goal here is to help you create a better inner dialogue so you can appreciate yourself on a deeper level by replacing negative thoughts with positive ones. And, all of these suggestions are free!
There are so many ways to be kind to yourself. Physically, we can eat healthy, exercise, and rest. Socially, we can find people that make us smile and support us. And mentally, we can cut ourselves some slack and speak kind words to ourselves!
Most people let negative self-talk influence how they perform at work. For example, if something isn’t going smoothly, they immediately think it’s because they did something wrong, they are incompetent, or simply not smart enough to deal with the situation. Do you see how harmful that is? The situation would be so much better if you simply spoke kind words to myself and said, “This is a difficult situation, but you have the ability to handle it.”
Having an attitude of gratitude is a fabulous way to practice self-love! Many people keep a gratitude journal, which is amazing. The habit that gratitude should replace is complaining. Complaining is focusing on all of the negative things going on in your life. When you complain, you essentially disregard all of the good things happening around you! Being grateful might be harder at first, because complaining is something that’s ingrained into our day-to-day lives (at least mine), but the benefits are worth it. To practice self-love, try to think about your personal attributes that you’re grateful for.
This does not mean that life needs to be sunshine and rainbows all the time, because that’s just not realistic. To me, positivity is having the understanding that everything will work out the way it’s supposed to, if you just keep going and trying your best. There's a saying: “Things will not always be like they are right now, you just keep going.” That’s positivity. She acknowledges that what I’m going through is difficult, but also knows that it will get better! It’s okay to feel sad, mad, or frustrated. It’s okay to feel overwhelmed and annoyed. The problem is when you let those emotions stop you from progressing and limit what you can achieve.
Using these ways to practice self-love, we hope you choose to see yourself in a more flattering light the next time you look in the mirror.
P.S. You can use our "I Am Enough" Silver Ring to remind you throughout your busy day to be kind with yourself. Get yours here: https://www.awareness-avenue.com/collections/rings/products/mental-health
