Loving yourself is the answer. I know that sounds cliche, but it’s true. Self-love is vital to living a happy, successful life.
You have to take the time to get to know yourself, and fall in love with yourself because the one relationship you must maintain is with you.
Here are a few factors that make loving yourself difficult:
1 . No one may have ever taught you how to love yourself. Society teaches us how to care for self, but not how to love self. We are bombarded everyday with advertisements to get a massage, take a bubble bath with candles, get a mani and a pedi, or get a facial. Those are self-care activities, but that does not equate to self-love.
2 . Past experiences can make it difficult to love yourself. People struggle with deep wounds from childhood trauma, dysfunctional families, and broken relationships. Most people have not properly healed and/or don’t know how to let go of the pain. Because some of the trauma is deep a trigger, it can easily bring back painful memories and can cause a person to struggle to love themselves.
3 . Past mistakes are another serious reason you may struggle with self-love. Blaming yourself over something you did in the past can hinder your ability to love yourself. Forgiveness is important to healing and can help build the bridge to self love. It’s often easier to forgive others than it is to forgive yourself, but it is possible and vital to do so.
It has been proven that self-love and self-care reduces stress, relaxes the cells in your brain, and helps to maintain a healthy life. Your quality of life is reduced when you suffer from stress and anxiety. You make better decisions in life when self-love and self-care are priorities. Loving yourself is the foundation on which you build strong relationships upon, and without a strong and solid foundation, rooted in self-love, you may not be able to stand the tests and trials that life will inevitably bring.
Self-love requires taking responsibility. Decide today that you will take responsibility for loving yourself.
Here are a few things you can do to start practicing self-love:
1 . Stop judging yourself by others’ standards, and stop comparing yourself to others. Everything isn’t a competition, and comparing yourself to other people is useless. You are an incomparable individual who was made to be unique. Embrace your uniqueness, and use your energy to focus on your own self and your own path.
2 . Allow yourself the opportunity to make some mistakes without the pressure of being perfect. Stop putting so much pressure on yourself to never fail. Recognize that making mistakes is a natural part of life. Learn from your mistakes and grow from them. Become aware of that voice in your head that always tries to tell you to be perfect. Just tell it to “shut up”; counter it with positivity until it becomes a whisper and eventually fades.
3 . Let go of toxic people and toxic relationships. You have to take care of yourself first before you can help others. Don’t be afraid to let go of people, places, and things that aren’t healthy and no longer serve you. Protect your energy, and be willing to remove yourself from situations that can drain your energy.
Remember, if you don’t learn to love yourself, then you are more apt to chase people who will not love you either.
