Self-love is something we don’t do enough of, given the hectic lives we tend to lead. We focus so much on others and work that we tend to leave ourselves out, which can only lead to exhaustion. Self-love is something that should be practiced every day to take better care of ourselves and improve our outlooks.
Self-love is performing activities like meditation and exercise to care for your mind, body, and soul. This is important because it can improve your self-esteem, give you more energy, and even make relationships with others better.
Did you know that if you show yourself some love, you can be happier around others? What are you doing to take care of yourself every day?
What Is Self-Love?
Self-love is holding yourself in a higher regard, taking care of yourself, and not sacrificing your needs to please other people. It’s doing things for yourself to show caring. This includes exercise, meditation, spending time in nature, reflection, spa days, and more. Self-love is a way of caring for your mind, heart, body, and soul.
Why Is Self-love Important?
Self-love is important because without it, we can be pretty miserable. When we don’t show ourselves love, we feel negative things like depression, anxiety, illness, low self-esteem, and even things of a more serious nature like heart disease. When we practice self-love we can reap some of the following benefits:
- Improved health
- Better self-esteem
- Renewed sense of self
- Improved interest in hobbies
- Better relationships with others
- More energy
- Less aches and pains
- Renewed energy
- Better outlook on life
So you can probably now see why self-love is so important-not just to our bodies but to our minds. Let’s look at the power of self-love.
The Power of Self-Love
There is a great deal of power in self-love. When you do things for yourself, you tend to feel better about yourself. For example: your hair has been bleached (and not in a pretty way) by the sun, and is peppered with gray hairs. Every time you look in the mirror you think about how bad it looks and you want to get it colored. It lowers your self-esteem and you begin to avoid even looking in the mirror.
When you finally make the time to get it colored, you relish at your new appearance and start feeling better about your appearance again, wondering why it took you so long to do it?? Yes, it can happen that quickly. Doing even little things for yourself can have a powerful effect on your mood, your attitude, and your outlook on life!
Psychology of Self-Love
Self-love can bring us peace to our minds, which affects so many things. When we show ourselves some love, we decrease the incidence of depression and anxiety, which centers and relaxes us. When we are relaxed, we can help others around us relax. Our state of mind can be contagious-just ask anyone who’s been yelled at by a spouse, parent, coworker or boss!
If we don’t care for ourselves, many negative repercussions can occur which can highly affect those around us. You know the old saying, “when mom’s happy everyone’s happy”? There’s reason (and proof) behind it!
Self-love can bring us peace to our minds, which affects so many things.
What Are Some Self-Love Affirmations?
Self-love is all about empowerment. When you utilize positive and self-love affirmations, you empower yourself to be stronger, happier, and livelier. These affirmations look a little like this:
- “I am worthy.”
- “I deserve this.”
- “I am perfect.”
- “I believe in myself.”
- “I accept myself as I am.”
- “I have courage.”
- “I am trustworthy.”
- “I’m capable of doing anything.”
Notice these are all positive statements, and in regards to self. Using these positive self-love affirmations daily can not only improve your self-love, they can improve your self-esteem as well. Say these things to yourself at least once a day, looking in a mirror and out loud or even to yourself. You can do this!
How to Practice Self-Love
Practicing self-love begins with positive affirmations. If you’re wondering about how to practice self-love in other ways, let’s take a look at some exercises.
Self-love is a way of caring for your mind, heart, body, and soul.
Self-Love Exercises
Self-love exercises include the following:
- Positive self-talk
- Utilize affirmations
- Mindfulness
- Regular self-care
- Protect yourself
- Create and maintain healthy boundaries
- Practice gratitude
All of these exercises can help you feel more positive about yourself, make your attitude more positive, and improve your outlook in addition to your self-love. Start out practicing one or two of these every day. Make it part of your routine until it occurs naturally. Then incorporate more self-love exercises gradually and before you know it, you’ll feel just great about yourself!
Self-Love and Relationships
Self-love is imperative in relationships! It begins with loving yourself and finding happiness with yourself. You simply cannot be happy in a relationship if you’re not happy with yourself. I’m not just talking about appearance-but attitude, mood, and actually engaging in the activities that bring you happiness. It’s also important to have self-love to prevent losing yourself in a relationship, as well as finding some solace if the relationship ends.
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How Do You Develop Self-love?
To develop self-love, do things that make you happy and bring you joy. Exercise, go outside, meditate, take steps to take care of yourself. Get your nails done, color your hair, go to bed at a decent hour. Do it consistently and you’ll be amazed at how easy it becomes to love yourself!
What Is the Feeling of Self-love?
The feeling of self-love is looking in the mirror and feeling good about yourself. You like the way you look, you’re proud of what you’ve accomplished, and you smile because you’re happy. It’s a great feeling.
Why Is Self-love and Acceptance Important?
Self-love and acceptance are important for happiness, self-esteem, and self-worth. We can choose to accept ourselves how we are, or make changes to show ourselves some love and improve our appearance (as well as our outlook). If we don’t accept ourselves as we are, we will never love ourselves and will tend to be unhappy! So learn to accept, or take the steps to perform self-love and make yourself better!
This helpful video below offers ways in how you can practice and obtain self-love.
How Real People Take Care of Themselves and Practice Self-love
I asked several family and friends what they do to take care of themself and practice self love? For example, do they get enough sleep, take a break from social media, meditate, vacation, etc. Here is what they shared and what I learned from the poll:
| Practice | Tally of Family/Friends |
| Take naps | 4 |
| Spa day | 1 |
| Beach vacation | 4 |
| Meditation | 2 |
| Time alone | 4 |
| Color my hair purple | 1 |
| Watch a movie and relax | 2 |
| Bubble bath | 3 |
| Get my hair done | 4 |
| Manicure/pedicure | 3 |
| Log out of social media | 2 |
| Get makeup done | 2 |
| Binge watch favorite show | 3 |
Other Resources:
- Self Care – Activities and Benefits of Putting You First
- What Is Self Care – How and Why You Deserve to be Happier
- Self Care Is For Everyone – Feeling Happy and Fulfilled
- Spiritual Self Care – Learn the Helpful Ways That Work
- Emotional Self Care – How Caring for Yourself Helps Others
- Why Is Self Care Important – Nurturing Our Own Well Being
- Self Care Tips – My Methods for Happier and Simpler Living
Practicing self-love is a wonderful way to improve the way you see yourself. With just a few small exercises each day, you can make great changes in your life. Don’t you think it’s worth it to exercise some self-love?