What is self-love? What are the basic ways to practise self-love? How to practise self-love in daily life? From where does this term come into the picture? In our society, where no one demurs about how others feel, how can you make someone fall in life with themselves?
When I was young, (well, I am still young though) I use to show all the anger in the world to my body, I would stop eating, skip meals, I would stop decking up, would indulge in negative self-talk, what for? because someone scolded me, someone behaved badly or someone hurt me. And in turn, I ended up hurting myself even more. Do you know what is the crux of all this? Lack of attention, we all need that attention from someone at some point in time, but we forget to give that very exact attention to our body, mind and soul. Use self-love to do that.
Trust me, a very challenging path to cover and hence in this blog, I am going to talk about the importance of self-love and a few very basic ways to practise self-love and care in your daily life without going too far. Sounds fair and interesting? Let’s go!
What is self-love and what are the ways to practise self-love?
Imagine you are a mother/father of a 5-year-old who knows nothing about the world but knows a little about his/her surrounding. Who completely is dependent upon you, trusts you and relies on you for every single thing, will you abandon that child?
Then why do you abandon yourself? That inner-self? The person is compressed inside you, trapped in its own body beneath the layers of self-loathing and lack of self-awareness. Won’t you want to hug that child and tell him that it’s ok, it will be fine or whatever we are going through, it will pass?
This is love, this is care and affection. This is something you need to do with yourself, your inner child who seeks attention from no one else than you, who gives you warning signs and you ignore. Who alarms you by physical symptoms of your draining mental health but you ignore and then one day you face burnout and everything breaks loose.
Can we prevent this? Can we minimise this or at least stay aware of our own situation? The answer is a big YES, but only if you are willing to. So hold yourself tight and drop all your ‘ifs’ and ‘buts’ before you read further because I am going to share some mind-blowing easy peasy ways to practise self-love.
19 Ways to practise self-love in your daily life
Well, I said some, but here are 19 exclusive ways for you to practise self-love in your daily life. Owning our story and loving ourselves through the process is the bravest thing that we can ever do. I often get asked questions like how to practice self-love and care, and how to love yourself and be confident and not feel guilty about it at the same time. I have formed a few self-love rituals in my daily life and I would love to share them with you.
1.) Self-love affirmations
To practise self-love you need to start showing some love to yourself through the words you use for yourself. Start developing a few positive affirmations and say them loud and clear to yourself daily.
2.) Replace your inner dialogue
The majority of the time we begin to curse ourselves when things go haywire, even when they are not in our control. Our inner dialogue is accusing and abusive to self, which needs to be replaced.
3.) Be mindful
I know it sounds cliche when someone asks you to be in the moment and go with the flow, but sometimes it is the wisest thing we can do for our sanity.
4.) It is ok to be imperfect
Perfection is like a work in progress. We all strive to be perfect but never acknowledge the raw imperfections of life. It is ok to be imperfect and do things at your own pace.
5.) It is ok to not have everything sorted at once
One of the most important ways to practise self-love is to also practise self-compassion, you cannot have answers to all the questions, or solutions to all the problems at once, you need to accept this and take things as they come.
6.) Take time for self-awareness
Your level of self-awareness helps you to set realistic expectations for yourself, the more you know your capacities and abilities to perform your duties and responsibilities, the more you are able to deliver efficiently.
7.) Reflect upon your circle
Your outer circle of friends and acquaintances has a lot to do with your inner circle, reflect upon your circle and set boundaries where needed.
8.) Do not indulge in gossip
How to practise self-love? by feeding our mind with positivity and beautiful things around us, gossiping and talking about others only leave a bad taste and we don’t want that negativity to enter into our body, let love reside.
9.) Personal care
Take time for personal hygiene, and for some rituals. I know some days are tough and you don’t want to do anything, you simply drag yourself but those are exactly the days when you need yourself the most, don’t leave that inner support by nourishing your body with love, care and some pampering.
10.) Do what you feel and when you feel
The more self-aware you will become the more you will be able to pick up tasks and responsibilities, take one task at a time, one day at a time and do things with 100% dedication, it will help you feel liberated.
Listen to 7 Ways To Stay Self-Motivated here
11.) Minimise content overload
Self-love also means refraining from garbage load. You must have heard about GIGA (Garbage In Garbage Out) with the content overload your mind becomes cluttered and you lose your own vision. (Well, blogs like these won’t harm)
12.) Be kind to yourself
I just treated myself to a jaffa cake, from time to time we put a lot of pressure on ourselves, sometimes we have to attend to guests, and do unplanned things and we lose track of our daily routine and work. It is usually overwhelming but at least we can be kind to ourselves in any way possible.
13.) Forgive yourself
It is ok to make mistakes, it is ok to goof up, and it is ok to not have everything sorted at once. Please learn to let go and forgive yourself for all these things.
14.) Don’t pressurise yourself
Another best way to practise self-love is to go easy and not pressurise yourself. We go so hard on ourselves to meet everybody’s expectations and fulfil our duties. Can we stop pressurising ourselves for all the things we already do?
15.) Do not set unrealistic goals
Know your body, know your capacity based on your present circumstances and then set goals. Do not overcommit to yourself, and do not open 15 tabs inside your mind and jumble them all.
16.) Don’t be judgemental
We have society, friends and relatives to do that. At least you don’t judge yourself, doubt yourself and demean yourself for not doing things in a certain manner.
17.) Take a mental health day off
A much-needed off, we all deserve. Rather, mental health days should be made mandatory for all. A day in daily life routine where you are forced to relax and unwind from everything.
18.) Remember, Self-love is not being selfish
Self-love is preserving, self-love is caring for self and nourishing internal injuries, it can never be selfish. to be able to fill others’ cups you need to re-fill your cup of joy and peace first.
19.) This shall too pass
When things go wrong, how does one practise self-love? By reminding, this shall too pass. Good times or bad times never stay too long, they just leave an impression of memories, lessons and experiences for us to cherish or regret. But these things are beyond our control, so hold on tight buddy, you got it.
To conclude, I would say practise self-love daily and only then you will experience the power of self-love. You will own everything yet nothing will own you, you will start freeing yourself from the unnecessary burden you have been carrying all your life. So do not fear falling for this new trend called “Self-love”.
Love and light
Priyanka
