7 Ways To Practice Self-Love And Self-Compassion

With Valentine’s Day coming up this week, I want to talk about the most important relationship in EVERYONE’S life - the one you have with yourself.

Practicing self-love and self-compassion ALL the time is the best habit you could have. It’s important to constantly be gentle and kind to yourself. We tend to be harder on ourselves than we are on others

So, although I’m going to tell you some of my favorite strategies to practice self-love for Valentine’s Day, you should be finding ways to integrate these into your life EVERY day.

Practice Mindfulness and Awareness

Not only is practicing mindfulness a great way to improve your mental health and wellbeing overall, it’s also a great way to be aware of when you might be too hard on yourself. Like I mentioned, we tend to hold ourselves to higher and near-impossible standards sometimes. Although it’s great to challenge yourself to be better, you also need to be realistic.

When you’re dealing with imposter syndrome, overwhelm, or just feeling like you aren’t good enough, try using mindfulness tactics to bring you back to center and remember that you shouldn’t be too hard on yourself. Learn to give yourself grace and set the bar a little lower in a more realistic way.

Practice Gratitude

Practicing gratitude on a daily basis will help you find the little joys in life. Sometimes we get so caught up in what we don’t have that we forget all that we do have. It’s okay to want more, but, at the same time, it’s important to recognize the things to be grateful for. This will give you a more positive outlook on life, and allow you to open up and enjoy the small things just a little bit more.

Positive Self-Talk and Affirmations

Affirmations are a huge way to show yourself love and compassion. The way you speak to yourself is waaaaay more important than you probably realize. If you’re constantly negative and talking down to yourself, you’re only going to make yourself feel worse. If you want to feel confident and good about yourself, you need to speak kindly and positively to yourself.

Try making a list of things you love about yourself. Write down any traits and characteristics about yourself that make you feel confident. Whenever you feel the negative thoughts about yourself or imposter syndrome creeping in, revisit this list and say all of these things outloud to yourself - with conviction!

Celebrate Yourself and Your Wins

Sometimes we are so focused on our huge goals and what the next steps are that we forget to celebrate the little wins. Every single improvement in your life is something to be proud of, no matter how small. We live in a time where we are constantly worrying about the future and what comes next, so we tend to not pay attention to the present. But, that’s where mindfulness and gratitude can also come in handy. Take time to enjoy the moment and celebrate the things you are doing NOW.

Schedule Time to Pamper Yourself

You deserve a self-care moment more often than you probably give yourself. You don’t need a reason to pamper yourself - you should just do it whenever you feel like it. Schedule time to completely shut off work mode and relax in a bath, go get a facial, get your nails done, or go shopping. Whatever makes you feel pampered and happy afterwards, go do it! 

Allow Yourself to Feel Your Feelings

I know how tricky this one can be. But, it’s important to allow yourself to feel all your emotions in order to process them. Pushing them off or pretending they don’t exist when you’re feeling them isn’t healthy. Self-love is validating how you feel and allowing yourself to go through the motions. Your emotional well-being is largely dependent on how you treat yourself when you’re feeling emotional. So let yourself get angry, or sad, or irritated. It’s good to let yourself feel.

Make Time to do Things You Love

And I mean REAL things you love. Sure, maybe you love your job or taking care of your family. But, also make sure you’re doing things outside of your responsibilities that you enjoy. Nurture your inner child and do things that fill your cup - no matter how silly you might think they are. If you feel like building a sand-castle on the beach, go build a sand castle on the beach. If you feel like dressing up and having a dance party, dress up and have a dance party. 

But, seriously, make sure you’re going out and spending time with your favorite people and doing your favorite things. And not just once in a while. You need to do things you love ALL the time. This is how you truly keep yourself happy and healthy.

Incorporating these things into your routine this week for Valentine’s Day (and all the time) will help boost your self-esteem and feel more confident in yourself. The relationship you have with yourself is so important and you need to take care of yourself and be happy before you can take care of others. Prioritize self-love every single day and you’ll notice a huge change in your mental and emotional well-being, as well as your overall outlook on life.