I recently watched the movie "How To Be Single" and somewhere between all of the crazy nights out and the crude humor (I died laughing) I was in awe by the underlying message of "learning to love yourself" and how much I felt that I could relate - Seriously, out of all the movies in the world, I was not expecting that from this one.
Whether you're in a relationship or not, I believe that practicing self love is something everyone should be doing on a daily basis. ... that's right. Not once a year or once every other month or maybe that odd day a week, but DAILY.
Now, practicing self love isn't an easy task - as you would have seen in the movie if you've watched it - some of us don't even realize we should be doing it. But, we all have so much depth to ourselves and before anyone else can fully understand us, we have to understand ourselves - and ultimately love ourselves.
About a month ago I was going through a rough patch - a time where I didn't really know how to be comfortable in my own skin. It was hard for me to go out and enjoy my time with people when I didn't even want to be around people. I'm the first to admit that I'm a work in progress, everyone struggles with their own personal issues but we wouldn't be human if we didn't! From those struggles however, I've learned the practice of self love and that being perfect or having it all isn't something that's possible or even something that I want to attain.
I'm going to sound like a life coach but - life is so beautiful!! And you're beautiful!! I think we get so caught up in things and the hard parts in life that we forget to remind ourselves of that and to show ourselves some love.
So, through trial and error I've managed to come up with 6 tips to help anyone out there wanting to practice self LOVE:
Treat yo'self
With the mix between our jobs and constantly being bombarded by social media updates and texting conversations, our minds are constantly over worked. We're always comparing lives or looking in the future, when we really just need some time to unplug and just RELAX. Take a weekend to go to a spa for a small massage, facial or even take time at home to have a nice bath. I find that pampering myself or even just putting my phone away for an hour lets me collect my thoughts and focus on myself and my needs.
Reflect
Reflection is such a key part of self love. I spend about 10 minutes at the end of my day either writing in a journal or (I know this sounds cray cray) recording myself and just venting. It's so good to just talk about how my day went without having to filter myself. In addition, I can always re-watch myself or read my past journal if I'm having a bad day and need to be reminded of how far I've come in the self-love process. The act of writing or talking is also just so therapeutic and can really help you learn different things about yourself.
Nourish your body
I've found over the years that what you eat can directly impact how you feel about yourself. I spent probably 2 months, before I decided to make this self love change, eating complete junk and that's exactly how I felt about myself during that time. Practicing self love means showing your body some love. Of course it's okay to indulge - grab that pizza! - but not every single day. Start looking at what you are putting into your body, is it going to nourish you? Will it make you feel better? Or is it going to take away from you and make you feel worse about yourself? Incorporating healthy or nutritious food into your diet can help lift your mood and just make you feel better overall. Reward your body don't punish it!
Challenge the way you think
As humans, we are always so hard on ourselves. Especially with social media - I mean, I couldn't tell you how many times I've stopped to compare my life to someones Instagram picture, a PICTURE that showed me 0.0001 seconds of their actual life!! It's cray cray. In my quest to practice self love I found that it's helpful to challenge the way that you think. I'll try to stop myself when I start thinking about something negative or I'll remind myself that I'm not actually seeing someones real life on social media when I'm comparing myself. It takes a lot of work to constantly remind yourself, but when you do you get in a routine of thinking positively it won't feel like a chore and you'll feel a lot better about everything.
Surround yourself with uplifting people
I think when you're in the process of showing yourself some love, being around genuine, uplifting people who also love you is so important. This year was a big shift for me - I felt like for a while it was hard for me to make friends because I wasn't sure of they're intentions or I just didn't see eye to eye with them and was forcing friendships. But during my process I've learned to start building meaningful relationships. I am so beyond happy with the people I have in my life, who constantly push me to be the best version of my self and that understand when I need my "me time". Make sure to surround yourself with those types of people and it'll make your self love process that much easier.
Do what you want!!
Practicing self-love means forgetting about what others think about you and start following what makes you happy. This was the hardest hurdle for me to jump over. One thing that I struggled with was doing things alone because I was afraid of what people were going to think of me - if I was going away for the weekend I needed someone to come with me. After this whole self love process I actually enjoy and prefer doing things alone - weekend away up north alone to go skiing? Yes please! Learning to love yourself means doing things without caring about what others think - it's your life, you should be the only one your trying please!
I hope you all enjoyed this article on practicing self love! Although it might seem hard and almost impossible at first, once you make it through the hardest parts, making the change will make you feel so much better about yourself and life in general. So here's to living your best life - for you!