Wondering why you should spend time practicing self-love? In this article, we share 4 reasons why you should start practicing self-love today. Also, you’ll receive practical tips on where to start your self-love journey.
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Estimated reading time: 9 minutes
Self-love is a term that doesn’t get the attention it deserves. You have been taught to prioritize others’ needs before your own and put yourself last on the list in society.
I myself felt guilty to love myself for a long time. It wasn’t until I recently started reading ‘Madly in love with me‘, that I realized how many untrue beliefs about self-love I carried with me.
Before, I used to feel selfish for loving myself. Moreover, I thought that I’d be narcissistic if I’d put my own needs first. However, I came to the realization that in order to be able to love others, I need to love myself first.
The truth of the matter is that if you don’t love yourself first, no one will be able to love you the way you need to. After all, if you don’t know how to love yourself, how should others know that? This blog post will provide insight into why practicing self-love should be one of your top priorities.
Also, I’ll share practical tips on where to start your journey towards loving yourself more. Let’s start with the reasons why you should love yourself more, starting today.
Here’s What You’ll Learn:
#1 Self-Love Brings Balance To Your Lifestyle
The first reason why practicing self-love should be one of your top priorities is that it brings balance to your lifestyle. When you stop putting yourself last and start giving more attention to what you want, everyone around you will benefit from the happiness that radiates off of you.
Also, practicing self-love should be one of your top priorities as it can help fight against depression and other kinds of love addiction. Love gives us a sense of purpose and makes life feel less meaningless when we internal struggle with our own demons. In addition, loving ourselves allows others in our lives to love us back even more profoundly as well!
#2 Improves Overall Happiness
The second reason why practicing self-love should be one of your top priorities is because it improves overall happiness. Putting yourself first doesn’t mean that you are being selfish, rather the opposite actually!
When we put ourselves out there and show our true selves to others, they will learn what makes us happy as well, which in return creates a more joyful life for everyone around us.
Self-love is something many people struggle with but also take for granted on an everyday basis. The benefits of putting yourself first far outweigh the benefits of people-pleasing and putting others first all the time.
#3 It Helps You Determine What You Want From Life
The third reason why practicing self-love should be one of your top priorities is because it helps you determine what you want from life.
Taking time for yourself and reflecting on the question “what do I really want?” is an essential step in figuring out where your true happiness lies. In addition, when you have a better understanding of what makes you happy, it becomes easier to achieve your goals and dreams.
Self-love comes in many different forms for everyone, so whether that’s spending time with loved ones or taking care of yourself physically, make sure to put your own feelings first while prioritizing others at the same time!
#4 Empower You To Make Better Choices
The fourth reason why practicing self-love should be one of your top priorities is because it empowers you to make better choices. When we love ourselves, even the smallest decisions become easier and more enjoyable, which in turn makes them feel less like a chore than they did before!
If there’s ever any question about what you want out of life or how to get there, look within yourself for the answers instead of looking at others around you.
Self-love helps us take control over our lives again while also breaking away from unhealthy relationships that are holding us back; this applies whether that relationship is with someone else or with something inside ourselves (i.e., negative thoughts). Self-love isn’t always easy, but when practicing every day, finding happiness becomes much simpler!
How To Start Practicing Self-Love In Daily Life
Now that you’ve become aware of the reasons why practicing self-love is crucial, let’s find out where to start your self-love journey.
You already took the first hurdle; you realized that it is time to start putting yourself first. Well done! Now that you are aware of this, it’s time to dive deeper. Here are 3 practical tips to start loving yourself today!
#1 Become Aware Of Your Negative Self-Talk
Something that helped me to love myself more, is to identify my negative self-talk. Oftentimes, highly sensitive people and empaths are incredibly harsh on themselves.
While they are the kindest people towards others, they tend to be incredibly self-critical. This oftentimes results in negative self-talk. Think about inner thoughts such as ‘I am not good enough’, or ‘I am less than others’.
For me, it helped to ask myself the question ‘Would I say this to somebody else’? If the answer is no, you shouldn’t say it to yourself either. You should be your biggest supporter!
Therefore, try to become aware of your own negative self-talk. Sit down and write down all the negative beliefs you hold about yourself. Also, try to become very aware of where those beliefs stem from.
Quite often, there are specific situations in your past that initially placed those beliefs about yourself in you. Understanding those situations, healing them, and doing the necessary shadow work can help you to overcome the limiting beliefs associated with those situations.
#2 ‘Counterattack’ Your Limiting Beliefs With Positive Self-Talk
After becoming aware of your negative self-talk and patterns, try to rephrase them into positive phrases instead. For instance, the belief ‘I am not good enough’ could become ‘I am good just the way I am and don’t need to change’.
Whenever you notice a limiting belief popping up in your mind, try to ‘counterattack’ it immediately with positive self-talk. Just like a friend would comfort you, start comforting yourself by repeating that phrase.
In the beginning, you may feel a bit strange doing so. Also, you may not believe yourself while repeating positive self-talk. After all, your mind was wired to believe the negative belief. However, do not let that stop you from doing this exercise.
Keep repeating the positive self-talk every time you notice negative thoughts about yourself. Love yourself and if you feel comfortable, even hug yourself or hold your own hand. If it comforts you and strengthens the positive belief, it is a very good thing to do!
After doing this for a while, you’ll notice that the negative self-talk will become less and less.
#3 Find The Right Tools To Start Practicing Self-Love
As society programmed all of us to believe that we should never put ourselves first, practicing self-love can feel quite challenging to you.
Therefore, do not hesitate to find valuable resources to support you in your self-love journey. I already mentioned the ‘Madly in love with ME‘-book, which is an incredible resource for your self-love journey.
Also, you may want to consider downloading a great affirmation app that sends you positive affirmations (selected by you) as reminders throughout the day. For instance, I am a big fan of the ‘Affirm It’ app, which has a simple layout and is very user-friendly.
Finally, a good journal is highly recommended in your self-love journey. Here, you can write yourself love letters, do your shadow work and reflect on everything going on within you. It is the perfect way to be your own best friend and practice self-love. For instance, you may want to purchase the self-love journal, which is highly popular on Amazon.
Self-Love Doesn’t Happen Overnight
On a final note, it is important to realize that self-love does not happen overnight. The first step is to realize that self-love is needed, which you just did! Congratulations!
With the tips suggested in this article, you can embark on a journey towards loving yourself more. It is a very personal journey and each person experiences self-love differently. Therefore, find ways to love yourself that work the best for YOU! After all, that’s what matters the most!
How do you feel about self-love? Do you struggle with it? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments!
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