We first need to know and define for ourselves, what self-love is, in order to have this question answered. Self-love is anything but the empty love of self-pride and egoism, a preoccupation with a person’s self which is even combined with a general disregard for the others. Self-love is also unlike the love for your family and friends or the lover for art, travel or music. It is in fact, a kind of gentle acceptance of oneself and unconditional sense of care, support and compassion for oneself. It is the willingness to listen to one’s inner voice and to feel and think in the way, one wishes to. In essence, it is about picturing oneself as good, valuable and worthy of all happiness in the world. However, it may understandably mean different to different individuals since everyone’s way of showing their love (for the others or for oneself) is unique. It really helps to indulge in genuine amounts of self-love when you feel down, depressed and occupied with the most self- derogatory thoughts. IF you still have no idea how to indulge in self-love, here’s a list of ‘things to do’ to get started:
- Treat your body as a holy vessel: Let’s not treat our bodies as anything less than a holy and loving vessel. Let’s make sure that we do not put anything in our bodies unintentionally or unconsciously. A bit of mindfulness will not only make us look good, it will make us feel good too.
- Say ‘no’ to comparisons: We all are used to comparing ourselves, sometimes with our favourite media personalities and sometimes, with our relatives and friends. In the times of social networking, platforms such as Facebook and Twitter are stuffed with their pictures, right after a shopping spree, their engagements, weddings, with their new born babies and so on. Understandably it is difficult to look at so many positive pictures together and refrain from comparing them with our lives. So, the next time we browse the web, we must remember that we all have bad days, which are simply not posted on Facebook. So we and our lives are perfect just the way they are. This thought helps you shift our focus from feeling negative, especially when there’s so much for us to be grateful for.
- Build a support system around you: We know that we all wish we could do it all by ourselves, but it is not always possible. We, by all means do need support from the people around us to stay on track and keep going well in our lives. Don’t miss to build a strong support system around you, with the people who truly care for you.
- Learn to let go of things: Almost all the time we are carrying baggage of things from our past that weigh heavy on our souls. On the other hand, if we want to board the joy flight of self-love, we MUST get rid of these things of the past and travel light. Holding on to all things passé can only take us on a trip of low self-esteem and guilt. Let’s spare ourselves from all the hurt and move on to be the best we can.
- Get a bit spiritual: The very foundation of self-love is based on faith, regardless of what we believe in. When we truly and strongly believe in something, it opens the doors of our souls to all the beauty, the concept of faith holds. It develops our intuition so that we can make decisions based on our gut feeling. Finding our spiritual interests, take us on a journey to learning things about ourselves. These new learnings in terms of thoughts, passions, emotions and feelings help us appreciate ourselves for being the real ‘us’.