“In order to love who you are, you cannot hate the

experiences that shaped you.”

-Andrea Dykstra

Hi everyone! Welcome back to Goals & Good vibes! Happy to have you here! Today’s topic, is dedicated to a friend. She asked me to give her some tips on self-love. I’m sure we all could use some tips on how to do that sometimes. Wouldn’t it be cool if there was some magical self-love pill we could take and just skip out on doing any work? Unfortunetly, that isn’t the case. All I can do is share some tips or things that you can try to incorporate that will lead you in the right direction on your journey towards fully loving yourself. You’re responsible for the nitty-gritty inner work it takes to achieve that all on your own and you have to want to do it. Practicing self-love can be challenging for some of us. It has nothing to do with being narcissistic, or selfish. It’s about getting in touch with ourselves, our happiness, and our well-being. Here are just 10 ways to practice self-love to get you started! enjoy!

1. Start the day off by telling yourself something positive. Self-talk is one thing that can work in your favor, or against you. We constantly have an internal narrative going on in our minds and it’s either positive, or negative and self limiting talk. If you recognize it when you’re doing it on auto-pilot, you can transform your mind, and shift the narrative. Say something kind to yourself everyday, and tell me it doesn’t make you feel better. I’ll wait.
2. Recognize and accept your emotional state. Holding yourself to reasonable standards is a vital part of self-love. You won’t always be upbeat and positive or the best version of yourself every single day and that is totally fine! Some days will be better than others. Give yourself some slack or down time if you’re having a bad day or a bad week once in awhile. And pick back up when you feel that you can. It’s just important not to forget that our habits, actions, and routines have a huge impact on our moods! So find your happy place and allow yourself to feel whatever it is you’re feeling.
3. Put yourself first. Prioritize yourself because you’re worth it. Do not feel bad about doing this. I’m not saying now that you are working on loving yourself, you should completely forget about the needs of those you love and care about. There’s a time and a place for it though. You need to make sure that the cup you’re pouring from is full, so you can better serve others. something is costing you your peace and leaving you emotionally or mentally drained, it’s time to focus on your own well-being for now.
4. Nourish your body the right way. Be mindful of the foods you’re eating, if you’re getting enough of what your body needs to thrive and function. Like; Healthy foods, vitamins, and water. Make sure you’re getting enough exercise too. How you feel has a lot to do with how well you treat yourself because you just want to feel good and being intentional about it will not only help your energy and productivity levels, but it will boost your self-love.
5. Start a gratitude journal. “Gratitude not only gives you perspective, it’s essential to help you find joy.” A quote i recently came across. It’s proven that by writing down 5 things that you’re grateful for each day, you can train your brain to be more positive. Get yourself a notebook and a pen. And at the end of each night get to writing 5 things that you are grateful for from that day. See the beauty in simple things. It really could be the simplest thing. Just anything that you percieved as a reason to be grateful and see how much better you feel after you make it a habit. Doing this will help shift your mind and energy into a state of gratitude and love.
6. Surround yourself with people who love you, and encourage you. Cut out the toxic people who don’t add to the joy you’re trying to create in your life. You should feel safe to be yourself around the people you love without feeling judged for it. Only hold space within yourself for the people who genuinely want to see you suceed and make you feel amazing. Because you are amazing. Life’s too short to feel anything less than the amazing, unique, beautiful person you are.
7. Celebrate all small wins. In reality, those ‘small wins’ aren’t so small at all. They are the foundation you’re building to lead to the ultimate goal of loving yourself. They are proof you’re trying. So be proud of every little thing that you’ve achieved along the journey, nothing is too small and know that you’re doing you’re best and will reach the ultimate goal if you just keep going.
8. Find an outlet for creativity. Writing, painting, crafting, music, photography, the list goes on. Whatever interests you. There’s no right or wrong way to be creative.
9. Step outside of your comfort zone. Try something you’ve never done before or something that scares you. It’s an amazing feeling to conquer a fear, or something you didn’t think you could do. Don’t worry about what will go wrong, just go for it!
10. Don’t compare yourself to others on social media. Comparison is the killer of self-love. Normally we scroll through facebook and see the highlights of other people’s lives, forgetting they don’t have perfect lives either. You create your own story, and you can rewrite it at any time. You have the potential to live the kind of life you want, have the kind of relationships you want, have the body you want, and the career you want, etc. It all is in your hands. Don’t compare your journey to anyone else’s. That’s why it’s your life. You are more than enough.

That wraps up the 10 Ways to Practice Self-Love. I hope that they were able to help you in some way, and that you leave here with the intention of giving yourself the love you so desperately deserve from yourself and put one of these practices to the test. Thank you so much for being here!

-Jessica