“Love yourself enough to set boundaries. Your time and energy are precious. You get to choose how you use it. You teach people how to treat you by deciding what you will and won’t accept.” ~ANNA TAYLOR
“Love yourself. Enough to take the actions required for your happiness. Enough to cut yourself loose from the drama-filled past. Enough to set a high standard for relationships. Enough to feed your mind and body in a healthy manner. Enough to forgive yourself. Enough to move on.” ~Steve Maraboli
Your relationship with yourself is the most important relationship you have. After all, it is the longest relationship of your life! This year has been undeniably hard for many people, yet there is a silver lining. The pandemic forced a majority of us to spend more time at home, giving us the opportunity to take time to rethink our life’s true priorities. With daily commutes, countless activities, and the pressure of a go-go-go lifestyle, it became too easy to rush through life, neglecting ourselves in the process. This fast paced way of living offered little time to connect with our values and personal needs. Perhaps this slowed down time can provide us with a change in perspective and a shift towards living in alignment with our values offering ourselves self-love.
Much of my thinking lately has centered on the idea of self-love and self-care, something that becomes easy to neglect during hectic times. Too often, though, people misrepresent the true meaning behind self-care, seeing it as a time to indulge in things that make them feel good at the moment. That could be eating a favorite food or purchasing something they have always wanted, however self-indulgence is not the exactly the same as self-care. Self-love and self-care mean taking the time to appreciate yourself in a way that supports physical, mental and emotional growth.
Self-Love Means Truly Loving Who You Are
With the tendency of comparing yourself to others and feeling the need to keep up with societal expectations being very common, we are truly our own worst critics. How much time have you spent criticizing yourself or comparing yourselves to others? The answer is likely, more than you have criticized anyone other than yourself.
If you accept yourself as you are, you can focus on the things that make you extraordinary and unique. Perhaps you aren’t at your ideal weight, you don’t earn a certain amount of money, or live in a specific home, yet, your unique gifts are valuable and madder in this world. Self-love means removing those emotional burdens and guilt you carry that your life is in some way not good enough. Those types of thoughts keep you stuck. They add unnecessary suffering.
While every decision you have made and experience you have, have led you to this point in life, they don’t define your future. By recognizing that the past is not you and doesn’t decide your future, you have the power to form new beliefs and thoughts that do serve you in the present.
It’s not to say you must deny the past, but you don’t have to let the past dictate your future. You may have loved a blue wall color at one time, but that doesn’t mean the wall must always be blue! You can forgive yourself for mistakes, as well as learn from them, and celebrate your successes.
A negative and overly critical mindset has many adverse effects, in particular, additional stress and an absent mind spent worrying about things that already happened. Taking time for self-love includes being mindful of where you are today, what your needs are, and working on the areas you want to improve. The world can be hard enough. You don’t need to spend time making life more challenging when it doesn’t need to be.
“You have been criticizing yourself for years and it hasn’t worked. Try approving of yourself and see what happens.” ~Louise Hay
Clearing Your Mind, Healing Your Body
Practicing meditation and mindfulness can contribute to self-love and your overall feelings of self-worth. Those that practice mindfulness report being in tune with what they think, feel, and need in life. This leads to a positive view of experiences and interactions with others.
When you are in tune with your own needs, you may find that you act on this knowledge, offering yourself what you need to help support your spiritual growth. A part of this is working on what you need, as opposed to what you want. It seems as a culture, in our busy lives, we can spend too much time focusing on things we want from life, often getting these ideas from comparing ourselves to others. A mindful state can help you focus on what you genuinely need, focusing your energy on providing the things that will bring you real joy and happiness.
Meditation can also bring with it improvements in physical health. By reducing stress and anxiety with increased self-love, you allow your body and mind to relax. This gives your soul a chance to rest and repair, allowing for growth instead of merely trying to survive each day.
Living Intentionally and With Passion
“When you recover or discover something that nourishes your soul and brings joy, care enough about yourself to make room for it in your life.” ~Jean Shinoda Bolen
As the pandemic has forced a collective slow down, it hopefully has provided you time to explore some of your passions. Perhaps you discovered a passion like painting, reading, gardening, learning a new skill or something completely different that you didn’t know you had before. Discovering a passion that you have a deep love for offers fulfillment and joy. I like to think about what I would do with my time if money, responsibilities, and other life factors were not constraining me. Thinking about how you would spend that time can fuel your life today.
When you live life with intent, you are taking an active role in your life. Practicing self-love offers an opportunity to live a life filled with meaningful, fulfilling, and valuable experiences. Taking time to be mindful can help solidify your values and give your life direction. It is not always easy to stay mindful and remain present today. We all face challenges from life that can pull us away from where we truly need to be. Your meditation time can bring you back to a centered place and live full of self-love so you can love others.
“Don’t ask yourself what the world needs, ask yourself what makes you come alive. And then go and do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” ~Howard Thurman
Practice Self-Love with The Mindful Movement
The Mindful Movement is an oasis that allows you to tap into inner peace, a positive mindset, and your ability for healing. If you are interested in more about self-love and self-acceptance, check out this playlist.
The Mindful Movement’s 5-week online course, Living Fulfilled is another great opportunity to build self-love practices. During the course, you will explore how to find your purpose, love yourself, and connect with your authentic self.
Additional Resources:
Members Oasis for: Unlimited access to all Mindful Movement Meditations and Hypnosis Practices; Exclusive Members Only Content added EVERY month; Practice anytime, anywhere.
Purchase your favorite Meditation and Hypnosis practices from the Mindful Movement. You can download an MP3 file to listen to anytime, anywhere with no internet access necessary.
Hypnotherapy is an extremely powerful tool to support building self-love and positive beliefs. If you decide you want to work one on one with a hypnotherapist, I’d love to help you!
If you are interested in practicing meditation, dive into the world of mindfulness and meditation with our four-day meditation journey here.
If you are experiencing an overload of stress, it may show up as symptoms of anxiety, worry, or overwhelm. Our 21 day mini-course to gain freedom from anxiety is for anyone who is ready to make a change and release the grip of anxiety. This includes a lesson about how the mind works, two hypnosis sections, self-inquiry work, and a powerful hypnosis recording that is yours to keep and listen to for at least 21 consecutive days following your completion of the course.
Let us know how we can help. Please feel to leave a comment with any other suggestions, comments, or questions for the community!
With love and gratitude,
Sara and Les
The Mindful Movement
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