What is self love? You probably want to smack someone when they tell you to love yourself but it's really necessary and an integral part of loving others. Taking care of yourself is a form of self respect and ultimately the relationship you have with yourself sets the tone for all your relationships. Here's a few examples of what self love looks like & it's not always about spoiling yourself...
"Self Love means...
1. Choosing ourselves, even if it means upsetting others and not being popular anymore. Even if it means we leave a party before anyone else because we feel tired, overwhelmed, or just plain feel done with the crowd.
2. Telling what is true for us, not swallowing words that express what we truly feel, think, or want to do.
3. Giving our body the nurturing, rest, exercise, and comfort it needs to the best of our ability.
4. Wearing clothes that make us feel good and fit our personality instead of wearing clothes that are in fashion that we use to impress others.
5. Building a life that we love while we are single instead of waiting for our prince/princess to show up to explore life and to be happy.
6. Accepting ourselves with the good, the bad, the ugly, the sexy, and the smelly—all of it—and appreciate ourselves as whole people.
7. Making time to do whatever we love, just to play, without worrying about wasting time.
8. Owning our inner and outer beauty and complimenting ourselves without feeling guilty, arrogant, or entitled.
9. Not rehashing our past mistakes and dragging ourselves to a dark place when we know that we can only learn from the past; we can’t change it.
10. Spending some quality, connected time with ourselves instead of always watching TV or wasting time on the Internet.
11. Using discretion when sharing our heart, self, and dreams with others.
12. Trusting the path that our soul is on and making a genuine effort to become a conscious co-creator of our destiny.
13. Not blaming our parents for our current issues, and looking for ways to heal our wounds and change our dysfunctional patterned behaviors by reaching out to ministers, therapists, coaches, and healers.
14. Following what our gut/intuition says instead of living out of our brain and ego.
15. Staying in our integrity, both when it comes to ourselves and when interacting with others out in the world. This includes keeping ourselves in check regarding patterns such as lying, manipulating, co-depending, withholding, and pretending.
16. Allowing ourselves to dream big, without contaminating these dreams with judgments, our perceived limitations, or a lack of sense of deserving.
17. Knowing how we’re spending our emotional, mental, financial, and physical energy, and whether these activities bring back joy, connection, nurturing, rest, and creativity to our lives.
18. Taking responsibility for all of our experiences. Knowing that we have the ability for deeper self awareness and access to our intuition when it comes to making life choices.
19. Not labeling ourselves with others’ opinions of us, while having the courage to look inside to see if there might be some truth to them.
20. Learning to set boundaries that protect and nurture our relationships, with ourselves and others.
21. Allowing ourselves to make mistakes and not berating ourselves for making them. Instead, choosing to appreciate our desire to learn and grow.
22. Refusing to seek permission or approval to be ourselves. Recognizing that we, like everyone else, deserve to take up space on this planet just as who we are right now.
23. Loving and accepting ourselves even when we fail miserably at some of these self-love goals."
Kisses, m.
