Self-love means accepting yourself, your strengths and weaknesses. Rather than your mistakes or your past becoming a source of shame, when you love yourself, mistakes become a lesson from which you learn. They also provide you with an opportunity to learn to forgive yourself.
When you lack self-love, you feel less confident, leading to depression and poorer mental health. You end up continuously thinking negatively about yourself.
Self-love helps you challenge these negative thoughts. You’re better placed to comfort yourself should any thoughts of self-doubt or self-criticism crop up. It also makes you more resilient when you are faced with challenging life experiences.
Below are five ways you can love yourself.
1. Do what you love
When you take part in activities you enjoy, you not only have fun but you also start to feel better about yourself.
Make a list of things you love doing be it cooking, exercising, sewing, reading or taking photographs, and schedule time to do them every day. All you need is one hour in your day to remind yourself of the simple pleasures in life.
2. Watch your posture
Your body and mind are intertwined. What you say and do becomes ingrained in your mind and it becomes what you believe.
When you sit or stand tall, shoulders back, head held high, you begin to feel more confident.
Practice a power pose every morning i.e. stand infront of a mirror with hands on your hips repeating how awesome you are.
3. Say no
Learning to say no is just as important in your journey to self-love. Set boundaries in every area of your life and say no. For instance, when you’re asked to take on more responsibilty at work than you’re able to, say no.
Say no to activities you don’t want to take part in, relationships that no longer serve you and even obsessive thoughts particularly of the negative kind.
4. Show yourself compassion
Even as you work on loving yourself, there will be moments when you have negative thoughts. When these thoughts rear their head, avoid beating yourself up. Think about what you would do had it been a loved one in a similar situation.
Show yourself compassion by forgiving yourself for those thoughts and reminding yourself of the good that you have done.
5. Get professional help
A lack of self-love could be as a result of a traumatic event in your past. Perhaps you were in a toxic relationship or had an abusive parent. Even when a lot of time has passed, these events can still affect you and even hinder your ability to enjoy your life.
A therapist can help you navigate these thoughts and learn to let them go and thus fall in love with yourself.