How To Love Yourself
Loving yourself is one of the hardest things to do but can be one of the most rewarding things you can do for yourself. It’s much easier to love others than to love ourselves. We are more often harsh on ourselves than others. Self-love has often been perceived as selfish, however, self-love is self-care. Loving yourself is the secret to happiness. You’re going to be with yourself forever, so your relationship with yourself is the most important relationship you can have. It’s very important to learn how to love yourself, enjoy your company and trust yourself.
Here are some tips on how to love yourself
Know yourself
Most people don’t take the time to know who they are. Take time to know yourself if you want to learn how to love yourself. You cannot love someone you don’t know. So the first step when it comes to loving yourself is learning who you are. It’s not an easy journey acknowledging your weaknesses and triggers but it can be very rewarding. Loving yourself, flaws and all is very fulfilling. Getting to know yourself will allow you to love yourself more.
Know When To Say No
You disrespect yourself every time you say yes when you want to say no. You call it loyalty or love or friendship. Really you’re hoping someone will see how amazing you are and choose you. It shouldn’t work that way. Choose yourself. That’s how you teach them. By choosing you you choose to love yourself. Creating these boundaries is putting your best interests at heart which is a form of loving yourself.
Don’t Compare Yourself To Others
Stop comparing yourself to others because there’s no point in this. You are different and unique just the way you are. By comparing yourself to other people you subconsciously wish you were them. Change your mindset and stop comparing yourself to others. Accept yourself as you are.
Be Honest With Yourself
Being honest with yourself is harder than it seems. If you want to learn how to love yourself being honest with yourself is vital. Learning how to be honest with yourself is a journey, it’s not going to be easy but it’ll be worth it. Being honest with yourself is greatly beneficial. It helps you master your emotions and personality.
You become more accepting of your weaknesses and flaws and realize what you can actually achieve. It helps you get in touch with yourself. It’s about unlearning what you believe in and accepting that you’re full of BS. Once you accept this and start being honest with yourself you become more successful, more loving, and accepting of yourself and your relationships thrive.
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Cut Yourself Some Slack
Allow yourself to make mistakes and learn from them. Everyone makes mistakes, it’s what you do after making the mistake that matters. No one likes failing however as you grow up you realize that making mistakes and failing is inevitable. We’re often too hard on ourselves more than anybody else. Embrace your imperfections, mistakes, and failures because they are what make you, you.
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Surround Yourself With Positive People
Don’t feel guilty about cutting off anyone who drains your energy. Protecting your energy is very important. If you’re just learning to love yourself you don’t need any toxic energy around you. If you have that friend who is always negative about everything or brings you down by pointing out your insecurities just drop them. Surround yourself with positive people who bring out the best in you. This makes it easier to love yourself.
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Get A Hobby
Find a hobby that gets you excited. When you’re doing something you love and enjoy it improves your mood, confidence, and overall happiness. Hobbies are relaxing and fun. Being in a state where you love what you’re doing makes you have a greater sense of love.
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Forgive Yourself
We’ve all made mistakes and it’s common to hold onto these mistakes and memories. It can be a mistake you made, an error in judgment, or an embarrassing moment. Holding onto these memories is toxic. If you want to love yourself, you have to learn how to forgive yourself. Stop holding onto regrets and what-ifs. Forgiving yourself is saying you will do better in similar circumstances and learning from your mistakes. You can’t change the past so you might as well learn from it.
Affirmations
It’s very important to show yourself compassion in order to love yourself. Practicing affirmations can be very beneficial because it reminds you that you are worth loving. It also helps imprint self-love in our subconscious. You can keep self-love notes on your desk, in your office, handbag, and mirror to remind yourself to love yourself. These daily reminders make it easier to love yourself, especially on those tough days.
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Talk to yourself like someone you love
We all have that negative voice inside our heads that makes us question everything. Learn how to shut that voice down and talk to yourself like someone you love. Talk to yourself like you would a child, with tender loving care. Change how you talk to yourself. Don’t call yourself names and engage in negative self-talk. Learn how to speak to yourself in a kind way. This will make it easier for you to love yourself. Disengage from the voice in your head. You are not the one who says it, you’re the one who hears it. Learning this is very important.
Treat Yourself
Treat yourself with the same zeal that you would the people you love. If you surprise the people you love by buying them gifts, making amazing meals for them do the same for yourself as well. Check-in on yourself by treating yourself to gifts and special treats. This will encourage you to love yourself.
Learn how to accept compliments
Some people shy off when they are complimented. This could be because you don’t believe someone could actually think highly of you. Learn how to accept compliments because it will help with your confidence. Most people feel embarrassed or uncomfortable after being complimented. Accepting compliments means that you feel the same way about yourself.
Put Yourself First
You can’t put from an empty cup, you first have to fill your cup. Putting yourself first has been construed as selfish but it’s not. Women have been conditioned to putting other people’s needs first. However hard, you need to learn how to put yourself first. When you take care of yourself first it becomes easier to take care of other people. When you love yourself first, loving other people becomes easier. Learn how to put yourself first without feeling guilty.
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Feel your feelings
Allow yourself to feel everything. Don’t shy away from the painful and uncomfortable feeling. Learn how to feel everything because it’s a part of life. Embrace your feelings, whether you’re feeling fear, pain, rejection, joy, peace. Allow yourself to feel them all. Allowing yourself to feel your feelings helps you know that you are not your feelings.
Be Yourself
We try to live our lives trying to impress other people and proving ourselves to friends and family. Spending too much time trying to fit in instead of standing out on our own. Accept that not everyone will like you and its okay so you might as well be yourself. Once you stop people-pleasing you earn to embrace your authentic self. Being loved by others does not make you love yourself. Being yourself is key when it comes to loving yourself. When you are yourself, it becomes much easier to love yourself because your heart and your head are aligned.
To fall in love with yourself is the first secret to happiness.
Robert Marley
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