Falling In Love With Yourself
“Self love” has become a more popular term in the recent years but the meaning behind it is so much deeper than the frequently attached phrases like “treat yourself” and “self care.” Truly loving yourself is much, much more beautiful and meaningful than to be loved by another human being. When we learn how to properly love, care for and console ourselves, we allow more space for us to share our profound love with others and care more deeply for those around us. We simply get to know ourselves better and understand how we like to pick ourselves up when the going gets rough.
For a variety of reasons, whether it was the way we were raised or taught to love, many of us find it easier to love and give back to others more than to love ourselves. Sometimes we are frankly awful to ourselves with the way we think, speak and treat the inner child inside. The inner critic is harsh, we stay in unhealthy relationships and go through self-mutilation just to be accepted. We all know the perils of falling victim to and dwelling on our own perceived inadequacies.
Your inner strength is like your shining armor -- if you don’t take care of it, it will rust or break under pressure. However, when we build a foundation within ourselves of strong metal and take care shining and strengthening our armor, we become impenetrable to hurtful and hateful actions of others. So, how can we go about dusting off our shining armor and strengthening it for any occasion that may call for us to need to wear it? There are many ways but the team at Shine Your Bright wanted to share with you some of our favorite ways to SHINE BRIGHTER, on the inside.
Words of affirmation are a great way to learn how to love ourselves on a deeper level. Phrases such as “I am worthy of love” and “I live in such abundance with everything I need inside of me” and practice repeating, writing and expressing ourselves in the most authentic ways, we begin building that foundation.
Forgiving your own mistakes is critical for moving through the emotions that arose from whatever mistake you made. No one is perfect and it is doing more harm than good to blame, retreat and regret any situation that caused you to feel this way.
Saying “no.” Period. Many of us are naturally people pleasers and will say yes to others before considering the repercussions of what it means for our well-being. Saying “no” is setting a boundary to protect what is best for you, whether the person receiving the information agrees or disagrees. Knowing your limits and when to set a boundary are skills that every person getting to know themselves better must pay attention to.
Accept that not everyone will like you. Self-love has a lot to do with accepting that not everyone is going to like us, but that won’t change how we feel about ourselves. It is very important to remember this as we can be caught off guard when meeting new people or outgrowing friendships to ask ourselves, “What’s wrong with me?” The answer is: absolutely nothing; nothing is wrong with you, just not everyone is our “person” or type of people.
Regardless of anyone’s reason for their lack of self-love, it’s time to start caring for yourself and giving yourself the same love that you give to others. Here’s to this new season of your life and learning to love yourself while also occasionally ‘treating yourself’ too!