5 ways to love yourself

Dear readers, it is almost Valentine’s Day! February is called the Love Month for this reason. Everyone wants to shower their loved ones, significant others and close friends with something special. But remember that this month is not only to show love to others but to also love yourself. Self-love and self-care are more important than ever before. Loving yourself first and then spreading that love to others can be very powerful. Today’s post is about 5 ways to love yourself.

Self love and self care

So what is self love? Self love is putting yourself first. Self love is loving yourself with all your flaws and faults. It is saying no to things that do not build you but may break you. It is accepting yourself for who you are. It is knowing when to stretch yourself and when to take a break. Self love can be practiced in many ways and one way is through self care. Taking out time daily for yourself is a wonderful start to loving yourself.

Read below my 5 simple ways to love and grow yourself this month and year:

5 ways to love yourself

1. Do self care activities

2. Use self affirmations

3. Believe in yourself

4. Communicate with yourself and reflect often

5. Grow yourself

Self care as self love

Self care is taking care of your physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, social, professional and psychological needs. Regularly do self-care activities to pamper and de-stress yourself. There are different types of self-care: emotional, physical, social, professional, psychological/mental, and spiritual. You need to make sure that you are taking care of each. Emotional self-care is taking care of your emotions, and accepting you for who you are. Examples include learning music or maintaining a journal. Physical self-care involves ways to improve your physical well-being. Examples would be getting enough sleep or having a skincare routine. Social self-care involves maintaining a healthy relationship with people around you. Examples can be an evening out with friends or making a phone call to a family member regularly. Professional self-care would include balancing your home and work fronts, and examples could be taking a break at work as & when needed or decorating your work space. Psychological self-care involves taking care of your mental health, which may include delegating work and being kind to yourself. Mental self-care would be doing things to sharpen or stimulate your mind. Examples would be playing games with family or reading a book. To learn more, read my post about self care during COVID.

Self affirmations

Self affirm your worthiness and value. Self affirmations can be very helpful especially for someone going through a stressful phase of life. It is very important to have daily affirmations as reminders to ourselves that we have enough. Motivating yourself on a regular basis helps your physical body as well as mental self, as your thought process plays a huge role in convincing you that you have everything you need right now. Enjoy beauty around you by opening your mind and filling it with positivity and encouragement.

You can make your own daily affirmations or chose from the many. Below are some of my favorite self affirmations:

1. I am enough
2. I am grateful every day for all the blessings in my life
3. I always see the best in others
4. I believe in myself
5. I choose hope over fear

You may read this post about counting your blessings to learn more.

Believe in yourself

Trust and respect yourself. Believe that you are doing your best. You are not perfect, as no one is. But you put your best efforts in every situation and become the best version of yourself. Pat yourself on the back every time you put your best efforts, and make it a habit to never give up and keep doing your best. Remember that it is not the destination but the journey that maters.

Believe in yourself always. You are more than the roles you play. Accept yourself without hesitation. You are worthy and valuable because you are unique and special. You are a masterpiece and learning and growing with wisdom and knowledge. You may read this post from last year about 12 ways to practice self love and 7 habits to cultivate to get more ideas.

Communicate with yourself and reflect often

Introspection is very powerful. We need to take out time regularly in our busy schedule to reflect and communicate with self. Activities like meditation, mindfulness and journaling are just few of the ways to learn to love yourself by paying attention to your thoughts and state of mind. You may read this recent post about 50 self care journal prompts.

Self reflection is healing and therapeutic. Writing or sharing your thoughts with someone can give us clarity, understanding and purpose. Most of the time we are so busy in our daily routine that we seldom take the time to pause and think about things including our feelings and stress. Reflection not only grows us but may also help us understand and give answers to our questions that we may be looking for outside. Mindfulness as well as meditation are great ways to pause, live in the present and be aware of things around us. Making a habit to communicate with ourselves through reflection and self awareness can be very helpful. Journaling is a great self care routine to have. Journaling can help put our thoughts into words, reflect on where we are and where we are going, and is great tool to come back to after weeks or months (or years).

Grow yourself

Self development and self improvement are ways to grow and transform yourself into a better person. The first person to love should be you, and growing and learning makes us get better at accepting ourselves. Pursuing a passion or finding a love in every day things may keep us motivated. I like this quote by Bruce Lee- “The idea is that flowing water never goes stale, so just keep on flowing.”

However young or old we are, we can always learn more and grow ourselves. This gives us novelty and motivation to keep moving ahead in life. Make a small list of projects or things you want to accomplish in the short and/or long term, and stick to doing at least some of them. Believe me you will feel great and in the process, will learn something new or exciting. This habit to dream and aim high can lead you to success. Make a vision and visit it frequently. Take baby steps to reach your small goals, and in no time you will see yourself accomplishing big life goals. Just go for it! You may read these two posts to identify and develop your strengths and learn your personality and learning styles for more ideas.

Summary

In today’s post, I wrote about 5 self love ideas- 5 simple ways to love and grow yourself. Self care activities, self affirmations, believing in yourself, communicating and reflecting often, and growing yourself through small goals and projects are all wonderful ways to love yourself.

Dear readers, we would love to hear from you. This Valentine’s Day, which self love activity did you do for yourself? Share your ideas of self love and growing yourself!

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