What Is Self Love and How to Practise It?
The fast-paced world is something that does not let us pause or breathe in peace. The constant pressure of performing in any phase or level, be it professional or personal, makes us tense. In the meantime, we often forget to appreciate who we are and how much we have achieved in due course of time. We lack self love and that can be disastrous.
We need to understand how important it is to love yourself first and understand your importance in everyone’s life. This appreciation can go a long way to give you mental peace and offer immense psychological strength to progress.
What is Self Love?
Self love is a very crucial topic these days. People are eager to know what it is but feel reluctant or unable to find the right answer to it. It is the thought and practice to accept who you are. It might sound easy but trying it can be harder.
For example, a student is trying hard to progress in his/her studies but failing repeatedly. He/she might start to curse himself/herself due to the continuous failure and overlook his/her potential. A minor setback can trigger the feeling of inferiority where the student starts to hate himself/herself.
Learning to Love Yourself
Take another example. A student finally reaches his/her goal but it took him/her a little more time. His/her parents and peers did not appreciate his/her hard work and overlooked his/her achievement. This incident discourages him/her. He/she is compelled to look down on himself/herself.
These types of incidents are innumerable. It happens when someone does not see the potential in him/her or feels empty even though they are doing great. This is where the perfect medicine will be self love.
If we define what is love, we will understand the one you do to yourself is called self love. It is interlinked with the love you get from your parents, peers, and well-wishers. Loving yourself encompasses all the efforts you do for yourself to bring positivity.
How to Do Self Love?
Here is how you can practice self love to see the bigger picture of your life.
Be Mindful
Becoming mindful means you will understand what is going on around you along with your thoughts, activities, needs, wants, etc. When you can identify these things and give importance to things that can make you happy, you will start loving yourself.
Actions on Needs, Not Wants Deprive You of Self Love
There is a huge difference between need and want. You need something to survive and you want something to rejoice. Focusing on your needs is good but avoiding your wants can be bad. Your wants are the self love symbol you need to identify and start fulfilling them one after the other.
Self Care Means Self Love
One of the biggest problems we face these days is that we forget to take care of ourselves. It shows how much we are indulging in something to achieve and forgetting our basic needs of self care.
If you want to become more potent and confident, you need to work on yourself too. Achieving a professional or personal goal can be thrilling but sacrificing happy times for it will make you dull. Hence, it is mandatory to take breaks, treat yourself to good food and company, hang out with friends to recharge, and to de-stress more often.
Self care is the word for self love we are looking for here. In this aspect, you need to care for yourself more, sleep well, eat well, talk with others, laugh, enjoy watching a show, and study at the same time. It is easy to maintain a balance between self care and responsibilities.
Healthy Habits That Go a Long Way
Self love psychology teaches us to develop healthy habits. Unwinding yourself does not mean chatting on apps on your mobile, gossiping with friends without paying attention to your studies, or lying to your parents to go watch a movie. The habits that give you positivity are healthier.
A hectic day can end well when you go cycling with friends. Enjoy playing on the ground with friends. Sit and talk with your parents about your day. Treat yourself to good food after completing a study session successfully.
By practising these ways, you will see that self love is the greatest medicine to heal you mentally and physically.
A Fine Line Between Narcissism and Self Love
Narcissism or selfishness can come very close to self love. Self love is the best love when you care for yourself and others. Narcissism is defined as toxic love for yourself where nobody is included.
You can determine narcissism when someone asks for excessive external validation, recognition, and attention. People don’t want to admit their mistakes and commit to their flaws.
Self love is not selfish when you care for others too. It is not selfish when you understand your flaws, admit your mistakes and work on them. It is ok to know that we all have flaws. Not working on the shows you are narcissistic in nature.
When your thoughts on self love include the well-being of others, you are on the right track.
Practise Self Love for an Exceptional Change
Now that you know the positive words for self love, get started! Identify where you are missing self love and draw a line to narcissism. Find out where you can treat yourself better and follow your responsibilities accordingly.
Learn where you need to work on yourself and what you deserve. Talk to your parents to understand what it is. Discuss it with your peers and don’t be hard on yourself. You are doing well and you will do great.
