Self-love is a hard thing to achieve nowadays. Society and social media, with their impossible standards, are the biggest responsible for this. The “perfect body”, spread in the media, especially on Instagram, is not real, it is full of filters, and photoshop, making people – mostly women – hate themselves and want to change everything.Â
Loving yourself it’s a hard path, but not impossible. So if you want to learn some practical tips to help your self-love, this article is for you.
self-compassion
The first thing to start doing is self-compassion. You are the only person who is gonna be with you from day one until the last day, so be more gentle and treat yourself like you wanted to be treated.Â
Self-compassion is all about changing the way you view your own actions and yourself. Instead of being over-critical of what you do, punishing yourself after making mistakes, and not recognizing your achievements; try turning your judgemental into a gentle and kind one.
You can do this by practicing self-awareness and compassion. Accepting that you are not perfect and that you are allowed to make mistakes will help you to stop being so critical of yourself and to start seeing those situations as an opportunity for growht.
You can also practice gratitude towards yourself and what you have done, try writing daily on a journal one thing you are thankful for. It is also helpful to remind yourself that you are worthy of love, even if you are not perfect or over-achieving – you can do this by placing a post-it with this message on your desk or mirror.
practice small actions of self-love daily
Love habits are essential and there are lots of ways to do it. My favorite is to look at yourself in the mirror every time you pass it and say affirmation phrases, like “you are beautiful”, “you look hot today”, and “you rock”. It sounds silly but it helps to show yourself the love, respect, and care that you desire and deserve! The post-it hack can also work here, place a reminder that you are amazing in your mirror, so you can look at it every day.
Of course, there are other ways to do it, for instance, you can practice that by prioritizing yourself: take a special shower, use lotion on your body or do an activity that brings you joy, the most important thing is you feel comfortable and happy!
Surround yourself with people who boost your self-esteem
Society and social media already put you down, the last thing you need is that the people around you do the same. If you have people in your life that are always commenting bad things about your body or your beauty, start walking away from them.
You need people that put you up, make you feel comfortable, appreciate the way that you are, and are always putting yourself up. If you haven’t found them please keep searching, you deserve people that truly love and respect you.
Take care of your mental health
Last but definitely not least, your mental health is really important and it has to be taken care of. This is probably the most important thing to do in this process, because if our mental health is not good it’s really hard to do all of the other tips. So do therapy, exercises, yoga, meditation, or anything that helps you mentally – that’s the most essential key to self-love.
Loving yourself is not an easy journey, but with a lot of work, determination, commitment, and, obviously, love, you can get through it and have amazing results. So let’s go!Â
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The article above was edited by Marina Fornazieri.
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