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How to Start Loving Yourself: 7 Ways for Growing Self-Love

While it may look easy to love yourself, the process requires deep inner work to survive the ups and downs of life and keep the self-love flowing.

Loving yourself may sound the most natural thing to do. After all, self-love is nothing but taking care of your own happiness and well-being. But does that mean only buying stuff for yourself or having your way most of the time?

Not really.

While self-love does mean doing what makes you happy, it goes much beyond that and also means accepting loving yourself the way you are without being too critical of yourself and not being carried away with how people treat or view you.

Now does this sound a little complicated? It may. But as with most problems we face this one has a solution as well. 

When it comes to self-love the crucial thing is to understand yourself. What triggers you, what makes you genuinely happy, and how do you deal with people and handle challenges? Are you too harsh on yourself?

The journey of self-love begins with starting to be aware of all the above aspects because how you relate to yourself sets the tone for how to relate to the rest of the world.

So starting today let us take you on a journey to discover the art of self-love with very simple tips that you won’t find burdensome.

Ways to Practice Self-Love

1. The first step is to understand your thoughts, feelings, and responses and start writing them down in a journal. This serves as a handbook that you can go to time and again to know yourself better and why you react the way you do in certain situations. Try to be true to yourself. This step is the most challenging one and if you feel you need a counselor to help you understand yourself better, please do reach out for help. 

2. After you know yourself better it is time to accept yourself and have faith and confidence in who you are.

Marissa Peer the well-known life coach urges people to look at themselves in the mirror and reflect upon what they see. Do they like what they see, or do they see pain, and unhappiness?

She then recommends people telling themselves while still in front of the mirror to smile and say ‘I am enough’. This according to her is a great way for people to start accepting and loving themselves.

3. Our self-confidence is somewhat dependent on what we have achieved in our lives and we all have our goals set that we work hard to attain. However, most often we dislike ourselves when we fail and begin questioning our abilities. Since we know that the milestones we have targeted are not a day’s work and are not very easy to achieve, how about you focus on the smaller wins till you get ‘there’? Celebrating the little victories like completing an assignment on time cooking a fabulous meal or if you managed to finish that 3km walk you have been trying for a long time can help you build confidence in yourself and assist you in reaching the final goal you have been eyeing.

4. Try to be kind to yourself even if you messed something up and someone has formed a harsh opinion about you. You are a human and all humans make mistakes. Even the very successful ones have goofed up at some point in their lives. The idea is to not be overwhelmed with the setback and think less of yourself. Just like how anyone around you needs love more when they are down, you need that extra love and understanding from yourself too at that time to help you bounce back. Keep pep-talking to yourself and pamper yourself with whatever makes you happy, be it shopping, music, traveling, etc to help you feel better. 

5. Take care of your body, mind, and soul. Exercising not only makes your body stronger and healthier it releases certain hormones that make you feel very good about yourself and life. Exercising may not be hitting the gym or lifting heavy weights. You can put on your earphones and go for a walk or cycle for a short while.

Keep your mind stimulated by reading books, learning new things, and interacting with like-minded people. A coffee date with a good friend can do wonders.

Meditation is an effective way to take a break reconnect with your soul and understand your true purpose in life and what makes you genuinely content and satisfied.

6. Love yourself enough to walk away from anything and anyone who doesn’t feel right. Many people keep continuing in a relationship or a job that doesn’t give them happiness because they fear that they aren’t worthy of getting anything better. This one is tricky and you need to take a leap of faith here. If you are convinced that you are enough and you are worthy, you will draw healthy boundaries and walk away with self-respect trusting, and knowing that something better awaits you. Try joining communities and talking to like-minded people who have undergone similar experiences to help you in your decision.

7. An illness or a chronic condition can throw a person off track unexpectedly. If you have gone or going through a similar situation, the first thing you need to know is that the illness is not the end of the world and not always your fault. Most conditions are a result of environmental and genetic factors. But what you can do in such a situation is to not hate yourself, and keep up the faith and belief that you can conquer your situation and emerge victorious. And you will. There are so many people who have defeated serious illnesses with positivity and self-love. Here is one such example. 

And there are many more if you want to read about in our blog section.

So here’s to self-love and a new you, ready to take on life and come out much stronger.