“Without Self Love The Lenses We Wear Interprets The World In A Very Fearful And Negative Manner.”
Self-love is something that we often talk about in our daily conversations. We offer different suggestions and questions for finding fulfillment in life, including ‘Why do you not love yourself?’, ‘You need to love yourself more’, ‘You will not be able to love another man/woman unless you first love yourself’, ‘This would not have occurred, if you had just loved yourself more’.
Self love is essential for a life well lived. It greatly determines the image you exude at the workplace (and either keeps the fight or flight response off or always on), the choice for your life partner and friends, and the way you deal with different life challenges that show up.
“It’s Not Your Job To Love Me, It’s Mine.”
Self love does not imply getting a new wardrobe or a beauty makeover. Nor does it mean getting into a new relationship, or even reading something motivational. It is a state of admiration and appreciation that you have for yourself, and it grows and develops through actions which develop our psychological, physical, emotional, and energetic bodies.
Through our actions that boost self love within us, we begin to gain a greater acceptance over our strengths and weaknesses. We become compassionate towards the self and understand ourselves to be mere humans searching for personal meaning. We feel less need to elucidate our shortcomings to others or the self, as we expect and understand that our own endeavors will bring about life fulfillment and true happiness.
Here are 3 ways to generate powerful levels of self love now.
1. Increase your mindfulness
People with increased levels of self love are mindful of what they think and feel (which in turn results in the action). They are aware of their self and carry out varied actions based on such awareness, instead of acting as on the desires others have for them (and ultimately living to please others). Setting limits or boundaries can help you love yourself more; this can mean saying no to external love, work, or activities that harm or diminish your spiritual, emotional, or physical capabilities or existence, or which shows a poor image of who you actually are.
Say yes to mindfulness (here are the best forms of meditation), self awareness and higher consciousness throughout your day, and say no to impulsiveness and others suggestions for how you should live your life. Too many people get stuck in a never-ending cycle of anxiety simply due to the pressures to perform for others, and think as they do. When this old identify arises, recognize it and divorce it.
2. Make yourself and your well being priority #1
You will begin to increase the levels of self love, when you start taking better care of your essential and basic needs. Your body is always trying to send signals to your conscious mind to let it know what it needs. These needs are sometimes due to dehydration, bad nutrition, unconscious stimuli, or many other things.
Individuals who really love themselves offer good self-nourishment via healthy acts such as exercise, good diet, intimacy, proper focus over the sleep/wake cycle, and good social relations and interactions. So how much are you loving yourself and prioritizing you over the needs of others?
3. Forgive yourself
All of us tend to make mistakes and eventually learn from them and grow as humans. However, we often tend to be too hard on ourselves and continuously punish ourselves by taking full responsibility for all our acts that have yielded bad results. You have to accept that you are not perfect and only human, before being able to truly love yourself. Take steps through cognitive behavioural therapy to learn how to be less hard on yourself, and in turn begin feeling the way you deserve to feel daily.
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Hi Dennis,
Apologies you must hear this all the time but i am really struggling after a period of really getting on top of things for a while.
I’m losing hope about just letting my anxiety be and struggling with depression that ive developed from how long and how many false starts ive had.
I keep going and trying all over again each morning but my confidence drops which each week i have a setback.
Mike
I believe your mindset over this journey must go from any kind of expectation to a realization that this is a journey without a finish line. Also take. good look at your strategy, every anxiety sufferer requires a different review over what are the roots of their sensitivity. Let me know if you’ve already started the program or what type of strategy you’re doing now.
Hi Dennis,
Thank you for your reply.
I’m currently trying to just let the feelings come and go without giving them much respect. I also try and view the symptoms of anxiety as nervous energy trying to leave my body. I also try to implement one of your morning routines of writing down my worries for 2mins, stretching for 2 mins and speaking with my future self for 2 mins. For some reason though i stay in this rut and my exhaustion (physical and emotional) just makes me miserable.
I Just cant work out what im doing wrong and shy i cant sustain momentum.
Mike
Adrenal fatigue, emotional depletion, more time, you’ll figure it out I’m sure and always remember that the body is usually the last to recover to the mental and emotional changes a person makes.