Self-love is a concept that pretty much all of us can understand, but it’s one of the hardest things to practice.
Ever since we were little, we were taught to extend love toward others. Be kind to others, share your toys, love each other. But were we ever really taught to do the same thing for ourselves?
Self-love is so important for our health and our happiness. When we truly love and value ourselves, we open ourselves up to so many amazing things in life. We also allow ourselves to love everyone else better at the same time.
Self-love is important for so many reasons, such as:
– You’ll be more emotionally stable.
– You’ll have much more personal freedom.
– You’ll have healthier relationships with others.
– You’ll be more satisfied with your life.
– You’ll have better mental health.
Here are 10 ways that you can open yourself up to self-love and make it a priority in your life.
Figure out what’s holding you back
It’s easier to solve a problem when you know what’s causing it. So, one effective way to make self-love a priority in your life is figuring out why it’s so hard for you to make it a priority. What’s stopping you from making it a priority? Do you feel like you don’t deserve it? Do you feel like it’s unrealistic? If you have an answer, it’ll be a lot easier to change it because you’ll know what you specifically need to work on.
Let go of any negative beliefs about self-love
There are so many negative myths about self-love floating around that may be holding you back from committing to it. There’s the popular myth that self-love is unrealistic and impossible. I can say this is a myth simply because so many people actually love themselves. Then there’s the big myth that self-love is selfish. Self-love has nothing to do with being selfish and it actually allows you to love other people better too. If you’re believing any negative assumptions about self-love, just know that they’re probably not true!
Change your mindset
Changing your mindset is one of the most important, and sometimes the most difficult, things about learning to prioritize self-love. If you engage in negative self-talk, hold self-limiting beliefs, or just have a negative mindset, it’s going to be so hard to learn to love yourself. Change your mindset, be more open minded, and have a positive attitude about it. When you do this, you can literally change your life and open yourself up to so many amazing possibilities.
Set boundaries with people
If you have a hard time standing up for yourself, if you feel like you can never fully be yourself, or if you ever feel like people are constantly using you, then you probably need to set boundaries in your life. Having standards and healthy boundaries in your relationship is essential to loving yourself to the fullest. This helps us value ourselves and our time. It’s a good idea to re-evaluate your relationships and make sure you have healthy boundaries in place.
Learn how to say no
Learning how to say no when you need to is beneficial for many reasons. Your happiness is important and you need to put yourself first sometimes. So, if you don’t have time to do something or you just really don’t want to do something, it’s okay to say no. You need to value your time and respect yourself if you want to make self-love a priority. You don’t owe anything to anybody and you’ll also have more time for the things you want to do as well!
Love your body for what it does
One major roadblock holding people back from self-love is body insecurities, which is so sad. Our bodies are amazing and they do all sorts of wonderful things for us. We should really love and take care of our bodies for these exact reasons. If your body is healthy, that’s all that matters. We should love our bodies for what they do, not what they look like.
Make time for things you love
Loving your life is an important part of loving yourself. If you don’t love your life, that makes it hard to be happy. So, make time for things you enjoy! We work hard and we deserve to take time to do things that we love. Taking just 30 minutes a day to spend on your favorite hobby can leave you feeling so much happier and more refreshed. I think we can all spare 30 minutes a day for something that’s so important to our happiness.
Set and work toward goals
Again, living a life that you love is a huge part of loving yourself. The best way to live a life that you love is by setting goals and living your dreams. Setting goals is life-changing and it’s the best way to ensure that you accomplish what you want to in life. Defining where you want to go and then working to get there will make you feel so good and be so much more confident.
Let go of the past
The past can hold so many of us back from happiness, especially if you’re holding on to a past mistake or something you’ve done that you’re holding against yourself. If you’re doing this, it’s time to start working on letting it go. You need to forgive yourself and start loving yourself. You can’t change the past so when you keep carrying it around, you’re just hurting yourself for no reason. All you can do is learn from it and make sure you don’t repeat those hurts again in the future.
Take proper care of yourself
When you aren’t caring for yourself properly, you’re kind of telling yourself that you just aren’t worth it. You’re also leading yourself toward burnout and unhappiness. So, it’s safe to say that a lack of self-care is very unhealthy. If you want to prioritize self-love, you’ve got to prioritize self-care too. This will increase your feelings of self-worth, not to mention just make you a happier and healthier person. You’re worth the time and effort that it takes to ensure you’re taking care of yourself.
