This is a topic which has been on my heart a lot in recent months and so I feel it is important to share with you. 'Self love' is something I only began to learn as I left my teenage years and entered young adulthood and to be honest, I kind of wish someone had pointed me in the right direction long before.
As it turns out; society teaches us to 'love thy neighbor', to always be kind and treat others with respect. But what they don't seem to teach us is to treat ourselves in the same regard. Social media and advertising seem to often push us in the opposite direction, making it more difficult to practice self love and to feel content within ourselves.
There is a misconception that if you love yourself you must be vain or that you cannot be humble or modest simultaneously. But I want to share with you that self love is not about boasting about yourself but it is a practice and an expression of love towards yourself. It is the practice of treating yourself with love. If plants can grow better when we talk to them fondly, imagine how we could grow if we spoke to ourselves in the same manner?
Self love means nurturing yourself and understanding your physical and emotional needs and respecting those needs. It is setting healthy boundaries within your relationships so that you may flourish within your own right. It is spending time on the things that make you feel beautiful, creative and alive. It is saying thank you to your body for what it can do; thank you to your mind for it's powerful knowledge and intelligence; thank you to your breath which keeps you going and; thank you to your heart which keeps you loving.
When you practice self love; you know when to say no; when you need to slow down; when you need to speed up; or when you need a time out.
I feel that this year will be a powerful year of self love practice for me and I hope the same for you. Let me know your thoughts on this topic and I will definitely be sharing more soon (particularly on ways to enhance your own self love practice and self care ideas).
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