Even the ones that are overrated.
I remember the not-so-good days when I didn’t prioritize myself. I remember how my self-love got affected from that. But, when I began doing one self-care act at a time, it boosted my self-love. Yeah, there were some tips I came across that seemed cliche and overrated. But when I actually did them, they helped!
This blog post will list those self-care and self-love tips that I had ignored (which other people ignore as well!). While there may be some tips that are overrated and you’ve heard before, there will also be some tips that are underrated. Either way, you’ll learn how those self-care tips do help you boost your self-love and build a better relationship with yourself.
Regardless on where your level of self-love is, this is a blog post that can help you. You’ll be able to learn some self-care and self-love acts that you can do to build more self-love each day.
After this blog post, definitely read 20 Tips to Build a Better Relationship with Yourself and How to Put Yourself First and Become the Main Character of Your Life. These are great blog posts to read on top of this one!
Let’s dive in.
1 – Making Friends
Sometimes we forget that having good friends by our side can help with our self-love. If we surround ourselves with people who bring us down, then our self-love also goes down.
I’ve learnt over the years that there are many places to meet new friends. While you can meet new friends at college or work, there are other places where you can expand your social circle.
There’s Meetup and Eventbrite where you can go to events that interest you and meet people with similar interests.
There’s Facebook events or closed Facebook groups that you can join and also meet people with similar interests.
There is also Bumblebff where it’s solely for meeting new friends (otherwise, go on Date mode). Like the dating app, you can swipe right on the ones you’d think you get along with, have a chat, and take it from there.
As you can see, there’s many ways you can meet new friends and expand your social circle. We just have to be proactive in it.
Having friends to talk to or connect with every day is something that’s easily forgotten when it comes to self-love.
2 – Learning from Every Experience
Another self-love and self-care tip is learning from every experience.
When the whole world was experiencing the first lockdown in 2020, I overwhelmed myself with so many commitments that I ended up burning out. But learning from this experience was self-care. How?
Learning from the experience is self-care because I knew for next time what to do to prevent that major burnout from happening again. It may be a simple example but learning from your experiences can help you learn what to do for next time. Here are some other lessons that you could learn from your experiences:
- What works for you and what doesn’t
- These experiences help you grow
- Experiences where you learn things the hard way exist
- You can survive anything
You can read more on how to learn from your failures and losses in those linked blog posts.
3 – Invest time in yourself
We don’t have to waste time investing our energy to those who don’t want to be part of our life. While there are still many friends, family, or other people who will invest in you, the most important person to invest in is yourself.
How can you invest in yourself? You can invest time in yourself by making time for your:
- Health
- Personal Growth
- Intellectual health
- Relationships
- Mental Health
this is list is exhaustive!
Investing in yourself is not just about investing in a future property so you have some passive income in the future. Most times, it’s doing things that your future self will thank you for.
If you want to read more on how to invest in yourself, you can read this blog post!
4 – Unfollow accounts that make you feel bad for yourself
Another underrated self-love and self-care tip is unfollowing (or muting) those who make you feel bad about yourself.
There’s nothing worse than feeling like you’re growing then suddenly see someone’s post who makes you question that growth. That’s a way to start comparing yourself again.
5 – Create a ME-LIST
A ME-LIST is basically listing down all the amazing things that you do, to remind yourself of the unique individual you are.
You write down literally all the things that you invest into in your life. You write down what you do for work/study, what you enjoy doing in your free time, what you’ve accomplished in your life (big or small), basically anything that makes you… you.
So, when you have moments where you’re comparing yourself to another person, you can look at your list and see that you’re pretty cool as well. You get to see how unique you are as a person, and remember that everyone has different things that they do in their life.
6 – Invest time into activities you love
You will always find yourself with some time to yourself, so why not spend that time doing an activity you genuinely enjoy?
Whatever activities you already enjoy, schedule the time to do it. It’s a great way to boost your happiness and improve your emotional state. Sometimes we get caught up in a busy work/study day that we forget to make time for the things that make us happy. Click here for a list of ideas of self-care activities!
7 – Indulge in Self-Date Activities!
If you’re the kind of person that likes doing other activities with friends such as going out for food, going to the movies, or going on a walk, figure out how to do the same for yourself.
If you want to go out for food, pick a restaurant and get dressed up nicely, and have a self-date.
Or if you want to go to the movies, look at what movies are on, book a ticket, buy popcorn and a drink at the movie theatre, watch the movie, and there’s your self-date!
If self-dates are new for you, remember that it’s completely normal to feel nervous at first about what other people may be thinking. But the truth is, no one’s actually judging us if we’re by ourselves (if they are though, that’s a reflection on them, not you!).
If you want some help in planning a self-date, this blog post is your guide!
8 – Go for a walk and listen to your favourite music or podcast
Yes I know, this seems like the typical mental health tip to go for a walk. But honestly, it actually helps!
Going for a walk allows us to get some fresh air and new scenery. We’re able to breathe into fresh air and clear any stressful thoughts. Plus, since we are also moving our body, we feel better too. I love taking walks in the morning because it helps me clear my mind for the day.
A great way to also enjoy your walks more is to listen to your favorite music or podcast while you’re at it! Doing this while walking can help you feel better and give you something else to focus on.
9 – Going to the Doctor Regularly
This may seem different because it’s easily forgotten. If you have children, you would want to make sure they’re in good health regularly right? Do the same for yourself. Scheduling doctor appointments is the most important form of self-care and self-love.
Because think about it, you can’t work on your goals and your other priorities, and show up as your best self if your health is not at its best.
10 – Create Boundaries
Drawing boundaries will help you build a stronger relationship with yourself and build self-love. Because think about this… if you allow people to take what they need from you, without any boundaries, you’re letting them have control over your time and energy.
Instead, create boundaries so you can protect your time and energy. It will also protect your needs as well. Maybe there would people who won’t agree with them at first, but the more you reinforce them, the easier it would be. Read more about how boundaries are an underrated form of self-care here!
Take a SMALL STEP
- Making friends – Message one friend right now!
- Learn from every experience – Think of a recent experience and list down 3 things you learnt from it.
- Invest in yourself – Choose ONE area of your life you think you need to focus on more this month.
- Unfollow accounts that make you feel bad for yourself – Start unfollowing (or at least muting) the accounts that make you feel bad about yourself.
- Create a ME LIST – Write down the amazing things you do and what you’ve accomplished (big or small!). Then, refer to this list whenever you feel like comparing yourself to someone else.
- Invest time in activities you love – List down 3 activities you already love doing.
- Indulge in Self-Date activities – List down 3 self-date ideas that you want to do.
- Go for a walk and listen to your favorite music or podcast – Sometime today or this week, go out and go for a walk. Pick some good music or a favorite podcast to listen to as well!
- Go to the doctor regularly – If you haven’t yet, book your next doctor’s appointment!
- Create Boundaries – List down 3 boundaries that you want to set with people. Examples include:
- Not contactable during work hours.
- No invites to events last minute.
- Don’t ask for favors last minute.
Doing something for yourself each day will boost your self-love
Making the time every single day to do something for yourself will boost your self-love. By connecting with friends, setting boundaries, and investing in yourself, you improve the relationship you have with yourself.
On top of that, when you’re proactive by unfollowing accounts that make you feel bad, creating a me-list to remember the amazing cool person you are, and investing time into activities and self-dates you love, you love yourself a little more each time. Then of course, don’t forget those underrated self-care and self-love acts such as going for a walk and going to the doctors. All you have to do is take small steps!
Taking small steps is the way to go when you feel like taking big steps are overwhelming. I talk about how to take small steps in my book, Small Steps to Progression which you can download for free here! It’s available in the Free Resource Library where you can access many more free resources that will help you on top of this blog!
In the meantime, continue to take care of yourself, and remember to choose yourself!
-Lauren 😊
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Five Essential Self-Care Practices
20 Tips to Build a Better Relationship with Yourself
How to Put Yourself First & Be the Main Character of Your Life
List of Self-Care Activities & Resources!
How to Actually Invest in Yourself
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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