10 ways to practise self love
In our last blog feature we talked about the importance of setting time aside for self love. Did you read it? If not, have a quick 5 min read here to catch up! We learnt that setting even just 15 minutes aside is key to well-being, compassion, and to keeping depression and anxiety at bay.
So exactly how do you practise self love? There’s lots of different ways to do it, and just as each one of us is unique, as will be the methods chosen to allow yourself some well deserved me time. Each one below may work for you, or it may not! Therefore don’t be afraid to mix things up and change what you do in your daily practise. Yes, we said daily!
10 ways to practise self love
- When you need a pick me up, tell yourself something really positive. How well you handled a situation, how lovely you look today. Anything that will make you smile.
- Alternatively to the above, write down 3 things you are grateful for. This is called gratitude, and helps you focus on the positives in your life.
- Take a moment to reflect and celebrate your wins for the day so far, no matter how big or small. Be proud of what you have achieved.
- Write it down. Got so many thoughts it’s giving you a headache? Write all of those thoughts down on a piece of paper, no matter how crazy, mean, sad, or terrifying they may be. Keep that paper in a journal, tear it up, burn it, whatever you need to do to let go of it!
- Grab a cup of your favorite tea, coffee, wine, whatever your choice of drink, and sit down on your own. No TV or distractions, just you. Think about the wonderful things that are happening in your life right now, what your big dreams are and how you can make them happen. Again put pen to paper if you like!
- You know that thing you did one time (or maybe a few times) that made you feel bad, embarrassed, ashamed? It’s time to let that go. You can’t change the things you have done but you can control your future. Forgive yourself.
- Find your happy place. Where’s the one place you feel totally at ease, calm, happy, positive, high on life? Go to that place when you are going through hard times, or imagine yourself being there. Think about how it feels, what it smells like, what it looks like. Stay there until it’s time to go back to your day-to-day life.
- Be realistic and re-evaluate that job list you made for yourself. Reduce it down to 3 things you absolutely must get done, then everything else you achieve is a bonus. Being kind to yourself even at the busiest of times will get you through and keep you focused and productive.
- Try meditation. There is no right or wrong way to tune out and meditate. Get on youtube or find a good podcast or app and let a teacher guide you. It’s much easier to meditate when you’ve someone showing you how. Tune out and tune into yourself.
- Finally set time aside to just breathe. Be in the moment and enjoy noticing the small things around you.
Have you found time to practise self love? Let us know what you do in the comments below!