Love comes in so many different forms, however self love is sometimes the best kind of love there is. The feeling of being completely filled up with pure joy and happiness. Why? Because you choose yourself. You choose to love yourself so unconditionally that you don’t need to look to external sources for love. You have it within. Take a moment to understand the stability that creates for you. To not be dependant on another for affection, reassurance or validation. You can give it to yourself! You are more than deserving, so let’s start to believe in it and ourselves! We are ALL special. It’s time to start to ask your self, why am I special. Make a list, feel it, and then embody all the reasons why you are so very special. It’s time to start loving ourselves alot more now!
Self love is the key to attracting all that you deserve. Love. To be able to love yourself unconditionally. To feel whole and stand tall from within yourself. To know your strengths and find beauty in the aspects in which you may feel you lack. A sort of perfect imperfection. Our imperfections are our unique characteristics, without them… we would not be us.
Most of us are so happy to give our love away to our family, friends, pets etc. But have we ever stopped to think about ourselves? Why are we so free and open to give it to others and not ourselves? Can we take a moment to compare how you treat a loved one… say your pet dog/spouse/sibling/parent to how you treat yourself? Are you as kind, compassionate and caring? Do you buy yourself special presents? Do you take care of your own body with good food, good sleep, good activity and lots of self love kind of thoughts? In most cases we are so very critical and hard on ourselves, constantly putting ourselves down. But what does that do but dull our spirits? When we realise what we are doing and consciously try to do and be better for ourselves, we see that inevitably we can even love others MORE when we love ourselves so beautifully.
Sometimes we give away our love to those who don’t reciprocate. This can create alot of feelings of being unworthy, unlovable etc. Just because someone you care for cannot feel the same about you does NOT mean that there is anything wrong with you or that you are unlovable. It just means that it’s time to look within and give all that love you had for that person… to yourself! When you do that, you tend to attract the kind of people who will love you like you love yourself. So love yourself so much so that you cultivate a loving family around you too!
So how can you learn to cultivate a little bit of self love? To start off I think the most important would be to visualise someone you love, whether it be a family member, best friend, partner etc. Think about how you respond to them. How do you help them during crisis? How do you make an effort with them? How do you talk to them? How do you take care of them? My guess is that you do so pretty kindly, with compassion, understanding and lot’s of love. Now think about how you talk to yourself? How is that different from your loved one and what can we do to change that!! Can you truly and deeply love someone else unconditionally if you have yet to learn to love yourself?
One way to cultivate self love is to find things to do that make you feel whole and happy. It could be dancing in front of the mirror to your favourite tunes… or being goofy and making yourself laugh. Self love could look like making yourself a cup of tea to soothe your nerves or writing down all your thoughts and feelings in your journal. Maybe reading a book or watching a movie. Sleeping early or going out and having a good time. So figure out how you can love yourself more and really try to invest your time and effort into it!
I find that really taking the time to get to know yourself without other peoples judgment’s or influence really helps in learning and understanding more about who you are and what you need from yourself in order to completely fall in love with yourself. SO why not take some time each day to sit with yourself, talk to yourself. Think of it as taking yourself out on a date and getting to know who you truly are. The acceptance of your true self is another form of self love. To say “This is who I am and I am proud of it”. However, sometimes when we get to know ourselves we don’t always like who we are. We want to change. When we want to change for the better its always a good thing. To elevate ourselves by setting goals and reaching them. Turning bad habits into good ones. Although wanting to change the parts of yourself that you cannot, like your body… are certain aspects that you have to learn to love.
Loving your body is something most of us overlook. We take it for granted and feel as though we have had to settle for the bodies we have… especially after social media influence. However imagine your body had feelings, how do you think it would feel if you ignored its needs, constantly despised how it looked and failed to see gratitude for all the hard work it puts in for you to remain healthy and mobile. SO it’s time to appreciate! Appreciate the fact that your body is your number 1 mode of transport. It supports you, takes you from one place to another in clean strides like a well oiled machine. It processes and digests your food for you in the most efficient ways and it even feels all the wonderful emotions that flow through you! It is now time to appreciate our bodies for what they are! Love each and every cell and really take the time to listen to what your body needs from you. Because if you don’t take care of your body who will? Let’s love ourselves enough to take care of ourselves 🙂
No matter how we look, what our body type is, it was what was given to us. Instead of wishing we had a better body… let’s try to appreciate what we were given. Pay attention to the thoughts you have towards your body and then ask yourself, would you talk about the person you love the mosts body like you talk about your own? If not, then its time to start a more positive self talk!
Learning to love yourself is one of the most gratifying experiences and I am so excited for everyone who is on this path! I do hope you learn to love yourself so completely as you so very deserve!
Life in a bottle 