What does Self-Love Really Mean? ❤️
We all talk about self-love all the time. It’s what we all love to do and strive to do, but does it really mean to love ourselves? Here is what I always remind myself:
1️⃣ Receive Yourself As You Are Even before the pampering and the affirmations, it’s important to know who you are, your limitations (no one is perfect), and your true desires. Knowing yourself and ACCEPTING who you truly are is the number one step to self-love.
2️⃣ Stop Being So Hard on Yourself Understanding true self-love is understanding that you shouldn’t push yourself so hard. Pushing ourselves to our limits and allowing our negative thoughts to rule our lives is not loving ourselves. Using positive ways to improve is growth with love. Love who you are and who you are becoming. Throw away that critical version of you who is always talking you down. That is not self-love.
I have friends who tell me “I can’t improve if I’m so nice to myself”. I don’t believe that’s true. If you simply have no motivation without getting scolded, then maybe what you’re trying to do is not meant for you. What is meant for you, you would love to do.
3️⃣ Choosing YOURSELF Choosing to do the things that bring joy to yourself is self-love. But we get muddled sometimes when we put other’s happiness over ourselves. As small as just letting others talk over us, or allowing an inconvenience for others, are small ways we lack self-love. To truly embody self-love, we must choose ourselves at any time. Never put others first. It is when you are most loving and in alignment with your true self, that others benefit from your energy. This is easy to remember when we think of plane instructions—put your own oxygen mask on before helping others.
Sometimes helping others isn’t really helping them because you’re destroying a chance for them to grow and learn on their own.
There are of course so many more things we can talk about regarding self-love. But in short, I felt the need to talk about these 3 first. Remember to love yourself as you are, stop being so hard on yourself, and choose you. You are a beautiful soul. Don’t forget that.
With Love,
Chara