What Does Self-Love Mean to You?
Self love has a different meaning for everyone, but do you really love yourself? There’s a huge common misconception about self-love in this day and age. Society tells people to love themselves but rarely do we teach how to practice it. Self love is about caring for your mental and physical needs. To practice self-love one must be capable of understanding and responding to what their body needs on a daily basis.
It’s easy to prioritize work, school, or relationships before ourselves but there’s really no excuse. Self neglect is ignoring body signals and not responding in a healthy manner. For example, staying up late every night and never getting enough sleep. Disobeying your body’s need for rest is a form of self neglect. Eventually the lack of sleep will impair physical needs. It could potentially take a toll on your body’s entire functionality if not cared for. After a certain amount of neglect, your health will begin to decline.
*This is when you might start hating yourself and not even know it. *
We become mentally or physically sick when we don’t consistently practice self-love. The body malfunctions can cause feelings of stress, fatigue, sadness, irritability and many other forms of discontentment. These forms of discontentment can have damaging effects on your daily life in areas such as self-esteem, decision-making, and your physique. Understanding and nourishing your body’s daily signals will help you learn how to love (care for) yourself over time. Everyone’s methods may be different. Only you can read your body’s signals, so its best to learn what it’s communicating.
Practicing Self-Love
Self love doesn’t necessarily mean treating yourself to dessert or buying something because you deserve it. In fact, those suggested “forms of self-love” will only bring temporary feelings of fulfillment. In order to start practicing self-love correctly, it must be done in gradual steps! First figure out and understand what your body needs. Then create a plan to practice the need on a daily basis. For example, if you’re feeling sad. How will you handle yourself when feeling sad? There might be days you fail to correctly treat yourself but its important to be patient, forgiving, and understanding with yourself in the process. Think about how you’re responding to your body’s signals and see what can be improved upon or changed. Don’t give up if you fail once when practicing responses. Small practices of self-love will lead to an overall achievement. The first step is to become aware of the body signal and understand why it’s there.
If you’re one of those people who say they hate themselves, ask yourself why. Is there something you consistently do that signals self-hatred? Make mistakes and learn to love yourself even when you feel terrible. By becoming more aware of your self, you’ll be able to recognize body signals and respond accordingly. Practicing self-love will help you feel your inner beauty as an individual. Self love will help you understand your weaknesses and strengths.
Examples of Self-Love Practices
Procrastination of important tasks due to feelings of anxiety or being overwhelmed.
Self-Love Practice: Close your eyes. Inhale through your nose for 5 seconds and then exhale through your mouth. Repeat this until you’ve reach a level of calmness. Take your time.
Feeling tired everyday but continuously scrolling through your phone late at night.
Self-Love Practice: Try to fall asleep with your phone out of your bed and create self-discipline.
Using a substance such as cigarettes, weed, food, drinking and etc as a consistent coping mechanism.
Self-Love Practice: Chew gum, drink sparkling water, or take a walk outside and focus on nature.
Lack of ability to care for one’s hygiene, physical appearance, home environment, and etc.
Self-Love Practice: Add a new routine to your daily rituals such as making your bed every or washing a cup.
Self-Love is Inner Beauty
In order to feel beautiful, I think it’s important to know how to love yourself. For many, it’s a daily struggle of understanding. I personally think by practicing and failing we learn to understand. Learning how to heal oneself in different forms, responding to emotions through experience, and becoming aware will lead you on a path to self discovery. Beauty begins beneath the surface. Be patient with yourself.
If you are someone who consistently practices self love,
please leave a comment on this post so that others can get a few more ideas!
Raven R.