Do you love yourself? learn how to love yourself today
This is a universal problem that not many people know how to deal with!
What do you think about yourself? Are you satisfied with the person you are? Is there a lot that you’d like to change about yourself? Or, do you find yourself to be perfect just the way you are?
Be perfectly honest, do you love yourself?
The answer is going to be a big NO in most cases. No one is perfect in this world, but that doesn’t mean that we should constantly criticize and belittle ourselves. We may have a lot of faults and limitations to work through, but that doesn’t mean we should be insecure about them all the time. The key to happiness is to learn to love yourself just as you are, and to be content with all that you have.
Learning to Love Yourself
Loving yourself, to a great extent, means to completely accept the person that you are, inside and outside, and to be content with that. Many of us are always feeling dissatisfied with the way we look or the lifestyle choices we have made in the past, and that won’t make you happy.
Here are 10 tricks to feel good about yourself and love yourself without having to change for others’ sake.
- Give yourself importance
What we often forget is: you are the most important person in your life. Instead of giving ourselves the importance that we deserve, human beings have the habit of considering themselves just in relation to others. We become someone’s parents, sons or daughters, siblings, friends or employees. We give the people around us more importance than we give ourselves.
This is because we don’t love ourselves enough. We care more about others than about our own happiness; we put others’ needs above our own. That’s where we are wrong. You can only love yourself when you consider yourself the most important person in your own life – the one person who deserves to be happy before everyone else.
- Evaluate your Daily Self
Among the hundreds of chores and routines that you complete every day, how many do you do for yourself? When you work all day, and then take care of your family after coming home, what have you done for yourself? Have you had the chance to sit back with a cup of coffee by yourself? Have you had the time to watch your favourite show on TV? Have you had time to read a few pages all day? Did you do anything you enjoy?
Every day, you should find time to do something for yourself. Nothing as luxurious as getting a spa massage, but at least an hour to yourself, for yourself, doing something you enjoy. If you don’t give yourself enough time, how can you learn to love yourself and your life?
- Get your way
How many times do you make your favourite breakfast and not something your children will eat? How many times do you get to go to your favourite restaurant and not something recommended by your partner? How many times do you end up watching the movie you wanted to see, and not your friend?
Sometimes, it is all right to let others make decisions for us, but not always. You need to get your way at times and do something your way. Your voice needs to be heard and your choices need to be taken into account sometimes. If you don’t let others value you, chances are, you can’t learn to value yourself.
- Accept Yourself
Accepting ourselves doesn’t only mean being okay with everything positive that you have done; it means to accept yourself with the entire package. Your limitations, your failures, your fears, your losses – they are all as much a part of you as your achievements. You can’t just celebrate everything good and successful in your life, and ignore the bad phrases. Owning up to your mistakes can make you love yourself more than if you only choose to see your successes.
- Be in Charge of Your Life
You are the only person who should be in charge of your life, and no one else, no matter how well-meaning they are. Parents, friends and partners may think they know what’s best for you, but you should be the only one to make the final decision. While you can listen to advice and suggestions, the decision making power should only be on you. Wrong decision or right, you can love yourself only when you have custody on your life.
- Maintain your Boundaries
Always have a few boundaries in your life that no one else should cross. This could be anything that you are not comfortable sharing with others or anything you don’t want other people to discuss with you. If you don’t want other people to talk or ask about your romantic relationships, you should be strict in reinforcing this rule in your life. If you don’t like it when your friends always show too much enthusiasm in your personal habits, tell them to stop. If you don’t want your parents to constantly criticize your choice of partner, you don’t have to continue listening to them doing so.
If someone crosses their boundaries with you, you should always tell them where to stop, even when they are your loved ones.
- Highlight your Accomplishments
Even when you have a lot of limitations, failures and regrets in your life, it is important that you always put emphasis on your accomplishments. They could be anything from a successful career to a happy married life, healthy children to wonderfully supportive friends – and everything in between. You can also list your personal traits that you think are positive: tidiness and organizational skill, reading habit, good taste in music, appreciation of nature, friendly personality, etc. Everything that you have achieved in your life, with or without others, are your own achievements that should be celebrated.
- Take Care of your Needs
Your needs should come first, before everyone else. If you are feeling unwell and need to see a doctor, make an appointment immediately. Take care of your body and your mental well-being; take your vitamins and keep your weight in check, and always remember to eat healthy. Buy what you need instead of always spending on others. Be careful of your own needs, always, even when you are a stay-at-home parent with young children.
- Treat Yourself
Instead of treating others to celebrate, spend time and money on yourself. Take yourself out to a fancy dinner or a movie, or splurge on a designer outfit or some hardcover books. Take time out for yourself and do whatever interests you, by yourself. To love yourself, you need to be able to enjoy your own company in solitude. If you can’t enjoy by yourself and always need someone to entertain and validate you, you can’t truly start to love yourself.
- Surround Yourself with Positive People
You can’t love yourself when the people around you keep dragging you down, criticize you and make you doubt your own decisions. These maybe people who don’t even know you properly or even people who are extremely close to you. Whoever they are, to be happy, you need to distance yourself as much possible from people who are determined to make your life a misery. If you can’t completely cut them off from your life, always try your best to limit their influence in your life.
Loving ourselves should always come naturally to us, but unfortunately, reality is different. We are all more or less dissatisfied with our lives, our looks, our achievements in life and most importantly, in ourselves. To be happy and content, you have to love yourself, exactly as you are. To be fulfilled and gratified with what you have is the best gift that you can give yourself, and that will make your life so much more satisfactory.
