Self Love As A Daily Practice
It is so important to remember that our self love journey is always going to be a practice. This means that it takes daily cultivation for us to align with this energy of self love and acceptance. Practicing self love doesn't have to be hard or scary. In fact, it can be fun and feel really good!
As we travel this journey of learning to love all parts of ourselves, we may notice that sometimes, we still experience negative thoughts, low self esteem, and a lack of inner-support. This is totally natural! Being on this self love journey usually means that we are coming out of many old conditionings, programming, and thought/behavior patterns that do not serve our relationship to self love. However, these old patterns and conditions have become a habit, therefore, it’s going to take more than one or two self-love meditations to override these neural pathways and create new, positive, loving ones. This is why we say self love is a practice. We must practice thinking loving and supportive thoughts about ourselves and our lives, we must practice holding space for our challenging emotions, we must practice compassion for ourselves in all chapters of this self love story that we are rewriting.
So, how can you effectively practice loving yourself?
Read on to explore a few of my favorite ways to do just that?
- Daily Self Love Affirmations. You know us, Tribe- we totally stand behind the transformational power of affirmations. That is one of my favorite ways to connect to myself in a loving way. It can be hard to retrain old thought patterns on our own, but affirmations are here to directly nourish your mind with new and uplifting thoughts. I recommend listening to your favorite self love affirmation track for at least 10 minutes a day, if not a little more! Remember, affirmations are more powerful when we pair the belief with the feeling- so do your best to allow feelings of compassion, understanding, support, and love for yourself to arise as you repeat these healing words and phrases.
- Journaling practice. Part of practicing loving ourselves, means practicing setting aside time to check in with our feelings and needs. Self love is not all sunshine and rainbows, in fact, much of this journey is about diving deep into shadows to bring love to places we may have withheld it previously. Self love is about learning how to honor ourselves and our feelings in all moments, and to continuously check in with our needs and ask them: how can I nurture you? How can I honor myself/my body in this moment from a place of love and support? Set aside 15 minutes a day to freely write out your thoughts, feelings, and needs. Do your best to take loving action based on what you discover!
- Movement practice. Our bodies were meant to move! It is so important that we find ways to move our bodies that feel authentic and good to us. Movement is medicine, and engaging in some form of this daily helps to keep our mental health strong and our emotions flowing. Movement releases feel-good endorphins that will further support our self love journey! Most importantly, take time to explore movement that feels right for you. Maybe that means taking a simple walk outside while being present and enjoying nature, or perhaps it is a 10 minute stretch when you wake up. Whatever honors your body, do your best to engage daily if possible, and remember, part of loving ourselves is loving our bodies.
Practicing loving ourselves is a massively worthwhile endeavor that brings so many rewards into our daily life. It is okay to have ups and downs on this journey- that is why we practice! I hope you can love yourself today, and remember that you are so worthy!