What is self-love? There are several definitions of the term but my idea of self-love is having respect and healthy admiration for oneself, and putting one's own needs first. It is fully accepting yourself as a perfectly imperfect human and loving yourself anyway. It's forgiving yourself for past mistakes and admiring your unique talents and skills. Self-love is also about taking care of your body, and mind and soul by engaging in self-care activities. It's about setting appropriate boundaries with others and surrounding yourself with healthy and supportive relationships.
Many of us are socialized to be self-critical, competitive, and hard on ourselves and this makes it difficult to engage in self-love. To overcome this barrier, It's important to invest time and effort to "retrain your brain" to view yourself in a more loving way; once this happens, you will see many drastic life improvements!
Here are some important self-love questions that you can ask yourself:
1. What are some of your gifts, talents and strengths?
2. What mistakes have you made in the past that you forgive yourself for?
3. What is your favourite thing, trait, quality about yourself?
4. Are your relationships healthy and supportive or do you just try to convince yourself that they are?
5. Do you set healthy boundaries and assert yourself? Do you have a difficult time saying "no"?
6. Do you put yourself first in relationships, in making important life decisions, in making social plans, etc.?
Have a wonderful day!
Bettina