Self Love

It’s February and in fitting with Valentine’s Day on the 14th, I want to talk about Self Love

Self-love allows you to reach a new level of security and happiness.

No amount of affection from another person will make you completely content, and you can never feel safe if you don’t have confidence in your own self and skin.

In the same way that we exercise for physical health, we must work on loving ourselves so that we can overcome our limiting thoughts and live a happy, content and fulfilling life.

Practicing self-love would allow you to be good to yourself and in the process become a better human being so here are my top three tips on how to practice self-love.

Cast out the idea that you have to be perfect or that you have to live up to anyone else’s expectations.

Start by ditching the idea of perfect; perfect in every way—body, life, intelligence. The idea of perfection is false, and when you see it on social media, it is frequently untrue and creates a false sense of reality.  Never expect to be flawless because nobody is. 

Everyone has their distinctive qualities and personalities.  As you get to know yours, love all aspects, the chinks and all. 

TASK:  Find one thing every day that you love about yourself whether it be aesthetic or a personality trait or skill.  Do it every day.

Live in the moment, just for a moment every day

Stop your never-ending search for anything better for a time, and just look within. Realise how fortunate you are to be a living, breathing, and functioning human being. 

TASK: Before you go to sleep each night, think of one thing that made you happy that day.

Daily gratitude is the key to happiness and loving yourself (the above two combined)

If you want to run a marathon, you have to train your body over time to be able to run 26 miles. 

To train your mind to be grateful and content takes training too, especially if you are a glass half full kind of person.  It’s never too late to start this and has been proven time and time again to improve mental health. 

TASK:  Start small, just one thing per day that you are thankful for. 

You can think it, or better still write it down and it can be anything such as being thankful you finished something at work on time, that you had a good catch up with a friend or you finally finished a Netflix series – anything that makes you smile and feel good. 

Start with one thing and progress to writing as many down as you can think of in a day.