It’s Valentine’s month and just about everywhere is filled with notices about love and being in love. But what about us? What about learning to love yourself first above all else?
Self-love has become such a popular term that it’s practically part of our everyday conversations. We offer a friend advice, telling them to “love yourself”. We hear songs telling us the greatest love is to love ourselves or that we can’t love anyone else unless we love ourselves first. The list goes on and on.
But isn’t “self-love” just a nice way of saying conceited or cocky? If not, what is it exactly? We’re all entitled to our own explanation, after all, it wouldn’t be self-love if I told you what you had to believe.
What is self-love & how can you learn to love yourself?
Knowing what you’re worth and understanding that you’re enough is the best definition of self-love I can give you.
It shows up in having a deep sense of confidence regardless of whether life is going as planned or not. It’s not conceited. Rather, it’s knowing that the combination of both your strengths and weaknesses is what makes you human. With intimate knowledge of who you are and zero interest in hiding behind facades or pretences, comes inner-peace and profound contentment.
Conceit and cockiness are rooted in fear. They stem from the need to feel superior to others to validate one’s worth. Instead of embracing their faults, conceited people deny they have them or blame others if they admit to them at all.
With self-love comes freedom from crippling fears.
Freedom from fear of rejection.
This isn’t the same thing as freedom from rejection; it’s the absence of fear of it. In other words, you’ll be rejected at one time or another. Plan on it. The difference is that you’ll be willing to take risks to step closer to your dreams and not be paralyzed by anxiety, wondering “what if…”
Freedom from financial insecurity.
This doesn’t mean you’re going to get rich. What it does mean is that a chronic panic about money will leave you. Now you might be thinking that you don’t have money problems and there’s no chronic panic about money. That’s great news, but hear me out. Most fears boil down to two root causes:
- Fear of not getting what we want,
- And the fear of losing something we have.
In my experience, when it comes to finances, most of us on the journey to self-love either worry about not having enough security or losing any sense of security we have. When you love yourself, you have faith in yourself and your spending habits.
Freedom from fear of failure.
By now, you know this isn’t promising wild success. It’s promising that you’ll have the willingness to step outside of your comfort zone to try new things. You’re resilient; you look at all outcomes as learning experiences, not failures. Besides, you intuitively know that the worst-case scenario seldom comes to pass anyway. If you choose not to take a calculated risk, it will not be a fear-driven decision.
Five steps to learning to love yourself.
Forgive yourself.
Learning to love yourself takes time and possibly the hardest part is forgiveness. Both yourself and others. Guilt saps self-love, confidence, and self-esteem. Everyone has a story. Regardless of where you are, where you’ve been, who you are, or what you’ve done, if you’re holding on to guilt or shame from the past, you need to let that $#!T go! Sometimes it’s hard to say we’re sorry or amend a situation if we did wrong, but holding on to the guilt is far more harmful to our happiness than the pain of walking through it.
Give yourself permission to live free of remorse because no matter what you think you should or should not have done, you did the best you could with what you had to work with. Life isn’t always fair, and some things bring out the worst in us.
Self-love is based on who you are, not what you do. Self-esteem comes from what we do. If you want to boost self-esteem, do self-esteem-able things. Eat well, get some exercise, help someone in need, and be kind to others even if they aren’t kind back! Feeling good about the things you do will progress into feeling good about who you are.
Celebrate your successes.
Stop focusing on the things you don’t have or didn’t do. Make a list of everything you’ve succeeded at and let yourself feel the joy. Feel it in every bone in your body. Consider who you had to be to make it happen, what challenges you overcame, and what sacrifices you made. Believe that you can use those talents to take on new challenges. If you find yourself thinking of your weaknesses, consciously find five things positive about yourself for every one negative. Share that courtesy with the people around you too. What you see in others (good or bad) reflects what you see in yourself.
Believe in yourself!
There’s no magic formula to having real confidence and love for yourself. Having self-love doesn’t mean life’s all unicorns and rainbows. They’re still going to be bad days, disappointments, and wounded pride. Things will sometimes go awry, and when they do, it stinks. You’re not a mythological god or goddess, you’re human, and some stuff just feels yucky. Don’t try and deny the feelings, feel them. Feel them fully, but don’t become them. Think of them as unexpected company stopping in. “Visit” with them but don’t invite them to “move in”.
Set boundaries and stick to them!
Boundaries are so important for maintaining your mental and emotional health and wellness. While it might not seem like an obvious way to show self-love, setting boundaries allows you to decide what you do and don’t allow in your life.
It can be challenging and uncomfortable to start setting boundaries, so start small. This could be something like going to bed at a specific time each night and not letting anything or anyone interfere. You can also set boundaries for how people speak to you about your illness, who you follow on social media, or how often you’re able to socialize.
Practicing gratitude.
You’ve likely heard all about the benefits of a gratitude practice and that’s because they really do work. Each morning or night write down one or more things that make you happy or that you’re thankful for. Like with cooking, this gives you a moment to slow down and focus on yourself. It helps to shift your mindset to a more positive one. This is especially great to do when you’re feeling low.
While all feelings are valid and you should feel all the feels, taking a moment to write down or think of what you’re grateful for can pull you in a new, more positive direction.
How are you learning to love yourself?
It can take time but learning to love yourself is one of the most life-changing things you can do. So, how are you going to practice self-love today?
You are really very welcome …indeed this was much inspiring blog post…
It is such a great post! I agree: self love is freedom and it comes in so many different ways
Thank you so much for stopping in and reading. It’s much appreciated.
recently I’ve been more stressed probably because of this lockdown, so thanks for reminding me to self love
Thank you so much for reading and commenting 🙂
Thank you so much for popping in and reading. x
Thank you so much for reading and commenting. x
Thank you x
Thank you so much for taking the time to read and comment. Much appreciated.
I’m such an overthinker! I overthink everything!
Thank you so much for stopping in and reading 🙂
Thank you so much for reading!
Thank you so much for popping in and reading. x
Thank you so much for popping in and commenting 🙂
I think I’m getting to that point now in my life where I’m just like f*ck what anyone else thinks to be honest. I’ve lived for 27 years sacred of what others think, and I don’t want to be doing this until I’m in my 90s.
Amazing and inspirational post, self love is indeed very important for our well being
I believe our relationship with the world is defined by how much we love ourselves. Self love is the most important form of love. Unless we learn to accept ourselves unconditionally, and learn to overcome all the insecurities, we’ll never find true happiness.
What a simple and amazing idea to self love, very important and essential without doubt.
I always feel so inspired, motivated and happy after reading one of your articles. Thankyou for helping everyone in such a nice way 🙂
What an excellent post! I like the points you made.
Love this post! I think it is really easy to think loving yourself is selfish, and maybe that is what held me back so long, but I am a much happier person now that I look out for myself and remember that sometimes exactly what I need is a cup of tea and place to sit down for a little while. 🙂
Self love is such an important topic, particularly in our current times. As a lifelong “overthinker” I have to constantly remind myself not to focus so much on what other people say and do.
What a great guest post! Self love is so important; something I’m trying to focus on myself. Thanks for sharing x
Paige // Paige Eades
Self love/care has become really important to me, after about a year ago I realised basically everything was falling apart, and a lot of it stemmed from me not looking after myself. It’s weird that something that sounds so easy can be so difficult. I’m much better now, but it still often feels like a battle.
I think it’s healthy people spend time loving themselves but not to the point it becomes self obsessing. Its a great way to re-charge and grow as a person
So much yes! You’re so right that it can take decades. As a childhood abuse victim, I had a terrible self image from very young, way into my 20s. To tell the truth, it popped up every now and then in my 30s too. I was lucky that I had partners in my late teens/early 20s that viewed me much more highly than I viewed myself and slowly managed to convince me that I was better than I thought I was.
Somewhere in my early 30s I reached a good level of not giving a f*ck about others thoughts of me and therefore stopped basing my self worth on others ideals. It was liberating and pretty much when my actual life began.
Thank you so much for reading xx
It certainly does! Thank you for reading pet ! x
Thank you so much for reading pet! Wendy did an excellent job on this post! x
Thank you for reading. x
Thank you so much for reading and commenting. x
Thank you so much for stopping in and reading. It takes a lot of practice, and I’m still practicing, but like you’ve said it becomes easier with time.
Thank you so much for reading. x
Thank you so much for stopping in and reading. It’s very much appreciated.
Thank you so much for reading. x
I’m in the same boat! Keep working at it!
Thank you for popping in and reading x
Thank you so much for reading and commenting. I couldn’t agree more.
I’ve heard so many people refer to self-love as arrogance, when in fact it’s entirely the opposite. I think it’s actually humble!
Thank you so much for reading. Much appreciated.
Thank you so much for stopping in and reading. Much appreciated.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read, Yaya!
This is such a great post. Self love is so important but sometimes it’s so easy for us to forget and beat ourselves up.
Self love does take time and patience.
I love the topic of self love too. This is a beautiful post. I always leave your blog learning new things and I love it!
I feel self love is the biggest form of love, if we can’t accept ourselves fully and love ourselves, we can never be capable of loving another.
I think taking care of ourselves is so important. Especially forgiving and believing in ourselves!
Self-love is one of those things that is easy to say but sometimes not so easy to practice, but once you practice it more and more it gets easier. Thanks for sharing this point, I feel like this is a great time to remind people about about self-love because of the current global situation and such.
Self love is good until the point of being selfishness, Grear write up
Self love is so very important and I appreciate you sharing as it is a good reminder for everyone. I am going to share this one with my brother as he needs to read this so thank you for sharing and good bless!
This is very helpful and an excellent resource on self love. I firmly believe true happiness in rooted in this, so thanks!
Im currently working on self love as I’ve had a massive blow to my mental health, but I’m taking it one day at a time!
Love, Amie ❤️
The Curvaceous Vegan
Self care and self love is important in just about every aspect in life. Everything is much easier when you feel good.
The thing about self-love is that lots of people confuse it with being prideful while others don’t understand that if they don’t love themselves then it would be difficult to love anyone else.
Self love is the most important thing for everyone..loved the definition of self-love that is indeed very true and necessary…These all mentioned ideas and everything is really very true and meaningful..Thanks for sharing..Great work..Loved this…
i love reading this post as it’s such a good reminder to take care of yourself.
kileen
cute & little
I reeeeally love the sense of power and energy in this post, thank you for sharing!
Thank you so much for reading pet. I really appreciate the support.
Thank you so much for reading Jenny! It’s certainly a life long battle for me but I am becoming more at peace with myself the more I listen.
Self-love and wellbeing is so important to practice. It’s not egoistic, it’s showing the utmost respect for yourself.
This is so inspirational. Self love is often overlooked but so important.
This is wonderful. Having self love is important. Sometimes I find I am mean to myself and I remember: hey, be nice!
Love that you mentioned about the choice. Everything is the choice, even self-love and care 🙂
Self love is so important but it’s definitely not easy to love ourselves and it can be a long journey until you reach that point where you can love yourself for who you are! x
I need to do more of the believe thing. A daily pep talk might help me with self love
Amazing post and some fantastic food for thought here. I especially love the notion that most of our fears come down to those two causes – I’ve never actually thought of it like that and it’s so true! Self love has always come incredibly difficult to me but I’ve found a few journal prompts that are super helpful in getting you to start leaning towards treating yourself better. Thank you so much for sharing x
Oh gosh what an excellent guest post, I really needed this. Great way to start my week!
Great guest post, thank you both for sharing. Self love is so important and really can be a lifelong journey. It’s not easy as there are so many external factors that influence our ability to love ourselves – which is so sad really x