“Love yourself first and everything else will fall into line” – Lucille Ball
Have you ever caught your mind thinking negatively about yourself? Have you ever felt you were not good enough? Speaking from experience, it’s easier to judge and criticise ourselves, our body, our mind, our thoughts and actions, than to love and accept them completely. If self-judgement and self-doubt hasn’t gotten you far, why don’t you try the opposite…SELF-LOVE!
Self-love is learning and understanding your own self-worth and value. It is the act of truly believing that you are worthy of love, respect, kindness and happiness. It’s not just about pampering yourself physically, but it’s also about how you treat yourself internally. Self-love is accepting yourself, not just the good side but also the vulnerable side. It’s about accepting your flaws, your mistakes and your weaknesses while also celebrating your strengths.
5 Benefits of Practicing Self-Love
- Higher Resilience
We often find ourselves stressed in life, not because of the situation itself, but it’s often our feeling of being out of control and not knowing how to tackle the issues. When you learn to understand your self-worth and value, you will learn that you are more capable of so much more than what you allow yourself to be.
When we feel good on the inside, we become better problem solvers and able to tackle challenges in life with more ease and confidence. When there is a sense of love for oneself, we will learn to deal with setbacks in a positive way, allowing us to embrace stressful situations by being more flexible and seeing it as a potential for growth.
This allows you to give yourself a chance to succeed by identifying more opportunities for growth and improvement and building resilience in the process.
- Setting Boundaries
Self-love allows you to put yourself first and choose what to let in your space, both physically and mentally. Saying “no” to things that don’t serve you is just as important as saying “yes” to things that make you feel good. You are better equipped to protect yourself from people and things that drain your energy, when you love yourself and prioritize your wellbeing.
By learning to love and practicing self-compassion, you develop a healthy self-esteem, in which you will choose more of what serves you and let go of what doesn’t.
- Better Physical and Mental Health
Studies have shown, self-love is linked to better immune functions, improved relaxation, decrease in stress, depression and anxiety. It makes sense right?! Loving yourself is accepting yourself without limitations and conditions.
This means accepting your situation, your weaknesses, your flaws but also forgiving for your mistakes and still knowing your self-worth and value. It’s appreciating yourself and seeing yourself in a positive regard. This leads to higher satisfaction by being in control over your actions, thoughts and mind.
- Makes us Better
The more love you pour into yourself, it will overflow out into everything that surrounds you, in return you will receive more love the more you give…it becomes a beautiful cycle. It makes us better humans overall, by allowing us to connect with more people empathetically and with an open mind.
Through the process of self-love, we learn to be more patient and kind which allows us to be better partners, parents, children and friends. This helps us build stronger relationships based on respect, trust and kindness.
- Happiness and Contentment
When you love yourself truly, you will make better choices for yourself, whether it’s physically or mentally. Having a higher regard for yourself allows you to see what truly serves your happiness and choose intentionally. This creates a space where only good and positive things flow into your life, which allows you to see your self-worth and value, increasing your potential and happiness.
CUP OF FINAL THOUGHTS ????
You don’t simply wake up to love yourself overnight, especially if you had a negative relationship with yourself for a long time. Self-love is a skill you need to put effort and time into learning and build upon.
You spend the most time with you, so be kind to yourself, forgive yourself, trust yourself…and most importantly love yourself.
