Self-Love has become so important nowadays.
It’s great that self-love is drifting away from the myth that loving yourself means that you’re selfish or arrogant. The truth is, in a world where there is so much going on (such as this COVID-19 pandemic), we all the more need to show ourselves more self-love.
That’s why this blog post is going to outline easy and practical tips to help you love yourself even more!
1 – Identify What GIVES you more love, and what DOESN’T
The most important tip for more self-love involves self-awareness.
It’s so important to first be self-aware of what activities makes you feel like you love yourself, and what doesn’t.
For instance, activities such as exercising, affirmations, and journalling may make you feel more connected to yourself, and when you do those activities you feel a lot of self-love.
Rather than with activities such as scrolling through social media or reading the news, they don’t make you feel connected to yourself. Instead, you drift away from yourself, and you feel upset and anxious instead. Those activities have obviously not given you more self-love.
That’s why, you’d want to make a list of all the things that you usually do, and reflect on whether they give you more self-love, or they don’t at all.
For example, your list of things that give you more self-love may include (but not limited to):
- Exercising
- Journalling your thoughts
- Reading a book
- Taking a bubble bath
- Cooking yourself a nice meal
- Saying affirmations
Then, you have a list of things that don’t give you self-love and make you feel negative instead:
- Social media
- Reading or watching the news
- Surrounding yourself with negative/toxic people
- Eating too much junk food
- Watching too much TV
- Having too much caffeine
Both lists are endless and it’s going to be different for everyone.
You know yourself, more than anyone else. You’re the only one that can clearly identify what is going to give you self-love and what won’t.
By being aware of the activities that make you feel happy, confident, give you energy, and self-love you know that when there are times when you don’t feel like you love yourself, you can go ahead and do these activities.
You know that those are the activities that you should regularly do so that you can regularly give yourself love. Because think about this, if you knew that the person you loved, feels loved by you if you always spend time with them, or you cook meals for them, then it makes sense that you do more of that!
It’s the same with you! If you knew that you feel loved whenever you do a certain activity then do more of that! That’s why you have the list.
The same goes for the list of things that don’t give you love. If a person you loved doesn’t feel loved by you if you do certain things, then of course, it makes sense that you don’t do that. It’s the same with you, and your self-love. Try to avoid the things that don’t make you feel like you love yourself.
2 – Practice the Love Languages on Yourself
This is also another self-awareness tip which you will eventually apply!
Another thing to be self-aware about is your love language!
The love languages are from the book The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman and they’re all about the different ways to express love to your significant other.
Of course, in the context of self-love, you can practice those love languages on yourself! These love languages include:
- words of affirmation
- quality time
- acts of service
- physical touch
- receiving gifts
Now, the reason why it’d be beneficial to know your love language is because you will know what activities you should do more of. There are an endless about of self-love and self-care activities out there, and they’re not all going to work for you. By narrowing them down to your love language, you have a range of easier choices to try!
For example, if your love language is quality time, then you can practice that love language by spending time with yourself in nature, or have more me-time at home! If your love language is words of affirmation, then you can practice it by writing down affirmations in your journal and saying them out loud in the mirror.
Just like with the first tip, once you are aware on what works for you, and what makes you feel loved, you want to do more of it! Whether in times when you lack the self-love, or where you just want to consistently show self-love in general, you have that go-to list!
If you want more ideas on how to practice each love language on yourself, I definitely suggest you read this blog post on how to practice them on yourself!!
3 – Practice Self-Care
Self-care had to go on the list of tips.
Think about this, if one of the ways to show love for someone is to take care of them, then one of the ways to do self-love is to do self-care.
This is something that is so important to prioritise! If you can dedicate time to take care of someone else, you can dedicate time to care for yourself!
Yes, it is absolutely understandable that everyone has busy lives, but it’s always so important that in the midst of it, you refresh and recharge.
So that’s why you want to motivate yourself to do your self-care, and treat your self-care time like an important appointment or interview that you will only miss if there was a genuine emergency.
Now, how you practice self-care is going to be completely different to how another person does. That’s why we mentioned the past two tips to be self-aware of the activities that give you more self-love, and choosing your love language as well! By doing this, you can narrow down the different self-care activities out there, and do the one that works best for you.
Just make sure that you look at self-care as something that is non-negotiable, and not something that you put on the backburner.
Remember that self-care isn’t about the fancy stuff, it’s literally about taking care of yourself! I could go on and on about the many no-no’s of self-care, but just look at self-care as taking care of someone you’re responsible for!
4 – Take Care of Your Health
As we continue from the tips of taking care of yourself, one of those areas includes your health. This includes your physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health.
This is one of the significant ways to show love to yourself. You show love to yourself by showing love to your body. And, you show love to your body by taking care of it!
It’s quite an obvious one. If you are not taking care of your health, you are not really taking care of yourself.
Now, how exactly do you take care of your health? Well, we don’t need to be doctors or any medical experts to know that we need to prioritise:
- Exercise
- Good Eating Habits
- Rest & Sleep
- Downtime
By prioritising this, we actually show love to ourselves. You show love to yourself by putting your health as one of the highest priorities. I mean, if one of your loved ones is constantly working when they clearly need a break, you would encourage them to get rest. Do the same for you.
If your loved one is clearly burned out, you would tell them to take a break. Do the same for you.
If your loved one is sick and is feeling guilty about not getting work done, tell them that their health is wealth. Do the same for you.
Ultimately, treat yourself like you are a loved one… because you are! Care and have concern for yourself just as much as you would show it to someone else.
Because remember, health is wealth.
5 – Watch Your Self-Talk
You know how saying a lie to yourself over and over again will make you believe it eventually?
Exact same thing with our self-talk!
Every time you say something to yourself, positive or negative, your subconscious mind will eventually pick up on it, and you will eventually believe it (and live up to it!)
That’s why, you should never underestimate the power of the things you say to yourself.
So what’s the best way to improve our self-talk? It’s pretty simple…
Talk to yourself like how you would talk to your best friends.
Or even how you would talk to other people in general.
If you would never say cruel or just mean things in general to someone else (whether a friend or not!) why would you say them to yourself?
It’s easier said and done, but it’s a great small first step to improving your self-talk.
That’s all you need to do. If you want to show self-love to yourself, be kind to yourself. Talk to yourself, encourage, yourself, compliment yourself, and praise yourself like how you would to someone else.
Be happy for yourself when you accomplish something, big or small.
Say that you’re proud of yourself for doing something.
Every time a slip up happens, just say that you’re amazing anyway.
If you want to know more with how to improve your self-talk, this blog post, How to Lie to Yourself will outline the level of self-talk and how you can progress to the more beneficial level.
6 – Invest in Yourself
So how is investing in yourself an act of self-love?
Well, when you invest in yourself for your future, your future self will thank you and love you more for it.
Investing in yourself is not just about your finances. It’s also about investing in yourself with ALL areas of your life. This includes:
- Finances (obviously)
- Health
- Personal Development/Personal Growth
- Self-Care
- Career/Study/Business
- Relationships
You give your future self love by investing in yourself now. Then, in the future, your future self will love you even more for making those choices.
That’s why, invest in your future self. Work on those goals that you want to accomplish. Start taking action each day to become the best version of yourself. Most importantly, become the version of yourself that your future self will be so proud of! Make the decisions today that your future self will LOVE you for.
If you want to know specifically how you can invest in yourself, my blog post How to Actually Invest in Yourself will outline specifically how you can invest in yourself in these areas.
Plus, you can also start investing into your personal development by downloading my FREE book, Small Steps to Progression. You can download it for free and it outlines a specific guide on your self-improvement!
You Deserve ALL the LOVE from YOU!!
To wrap this blog post up, I’ll say this… You deserve all the love that you have to give! If there was one person that you should give all the love you have to, it’s yourself.
Yes, you have other people to give love to, but the most important person you need to give love to is yourself.
So be kind to yourself, remember that it is always progress over perfection, and remember that each day you are doing really well (I know it!!).
Continue to grow yourself and become the person that you will be proud of in the future. And of course, show yourself love along the way.
-Lauren 😊
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Related Articles:
How to Practice the Five Love Languages on Yourself
How to Actually Invest in Yourself
The Ultimate Personal Development Checklist!
How to Lie To Yourself (not what you think) – a blog post on self-talk!
7 Ways to Motivate Yourself to Do Your Self-Care!
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I’ve got a book called Small Steps to Progression which you can download for FREE!
It’s a book complete with tips on how to improve your habits, mindset, productivity, lifestyle, and so much more! Uncover the small steps to progression in your personal growth journey.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Hi, this is Lauren! I’m a law grad from Melbourne, Australia. = On laurenbarri.com, I create content on all things personal development, productivity, self-care, and habits! I am super passionate about these topics because of how they helped me in all areas of my life, and I want to share it with others!
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