You Don't Love Yourself Unless You Do These

Self-love.

A simple word but comes with a deeper meaning. It goes beyond pampering yourself, treating yourself in your favorite restaurant, or buying yourself an expensive gadget.

Personally, I am still struggling to love myself the way I am. My friends always tell me that I know how to make themselves feel better. Then I realized, how about me? Did I also do what I preached?

This is something I have reflected upon.

I have watched a video about how to love yourself and it got me thinking of the things I did to myself.

: So here are the 4 Steps to Love Yourself:

1.Grow in Self-Awareness

Identifying one's emotions is not easy. Others would put a mask on to hide their true emotions. Why? Because when they opt to share their feelings, they get invalidated and blamed for what they truly feel.

However, being self-aware is more than just expressing what you truly feel. It's about reflecting on what's happening in your life. Through that, you can now identify your strengths and weaknesses.

2. Grow in Self-Acceptance

This is a tough one. For the record, it took me a long time to accept myself. Also, accepting yourself doesn't happen overnight. It takes a while to learn about your character.

It's good that you acknowledge your weaknesses but it's better to focus and develop yourself for the things you are good at. That way, you will feel a sense of purpose that leads you to accept yourself better.

Going back, I resented myself too much. I was too hard on myself. All I saw were just my weaknesses. An incident made me realized how to value myself more. I realized that I have qualities worth sharing for, to inspire and motivate others. I learned to embrace myself as who I am.

3. Grow in Self-Appreciation

One cannot appreciate oneself when you're not aware of who you are and you don't accept who you are.

It is a healthy habit to appreciate looking at the mirror telling, "Hello there beautiful!" "Hello there handsome". Although I personally don't do it. I find it awkward. 🙈

That way, it boosts your confidence and sends good vibes throughout the day. Others wouldn't appreciate you, or your work of art if you don't help yourself.

Another way of appreciating yourself is to stop comparing yourself with others. It will serve you no good.

I grew up being insecure with the people around me. I became introverted because I have low self-esteem because of how people define me. I felt so small. I let my insecurities pull me down and it magnified my habits by being critical in so many ways.

We are unique in our own ways. There's always something you're good at and it's a good habit to appreciate your strengths and develop it.

Body types are different and personalities are not the same.

You are you.

Easier than done. I know 🤷‍♀️

4. Grow in Self-Attentiveness

You have to meet your needs.

Buying stuff for yourself makes it feel rewarding especially if you have worked for it.

However, meeting your needs is something you should attend first. What are these?

By taking care of yourself. Eat healthy food, get enough sleep, exercise, good social life, and healthy relationship with the family.

By doing so, it reflects how you value yourself.

However, it is also good to serve yourself some downtime. Refraining yourself from a stressful environment is a way of getting away from having dissociated thoughts and unhealthy relationships.

Spend time on your safe circle.

One great contribution of loving yourself is to surround yourself with people you can rely on. It is good to identify who are the toxic ones and who are the good ones. If you find yourself as toxic, then reach out to a friend that you feel safe and share your thoughts with it.

As I mature, I realized that Self-love is not selfishness. You have to embrace and celebrate who you are.

Here's a bonus tip. However, I know we all have different perspectives about faith but this worked for me.

Grow in Self-Abandonment

I surrendered myself to HIM. A life-changing incident taught me about second chances and it showered my a lot of realizations.

So that's how I worked on myself to practice self-love.

My Reference