Judy K Martene

The Importance of Self-Love: Tips on Being Kinder to Yourself

If you are reading this, we have no doubts that you are a kind and compassionate person, but just as much as you are kind to others, you have to be kind to yourself as well.

Practicing kindness towards yourself gives you the power of self-acceptance, self-compassion, self-love, and general personal growth.

All of these are important throughout your life’s journey, so if you are interested in learning how to love yourself more, keep reading this article!

Why is Self-Love Important?

There are many reasons why self-love is important, all of which relate to your relationship with yourself, as well as others.

Here are just a couple of the reasons why self-love is important:

- Teaches you to embrace yourself just the way you are

- Gives you the ability to forgive yourself for any mistakes in your past

- Lets you move on from past trauma

- Increases self-worth

- Making it easier to let go of what you might think is ‘imperfections’

- Improves sleeping habits by dealing with anxiety and depression struggles

Tips on Being Kinder to Yourself

Without a doubt, being kind to yourself is easier said than done, especially if you have already developed self-sabotaging habits like negative self-affirmations or self-punishments.

Nevertheless, it can all be reversed for your own greater good, so let’s have a look at the actionable tips you can take on!

Give Time to Yourself

At this moment you are probably dedicating more time to your job, family, and friends than you are giving to yourself… And this is something normal but quite frankly, it is not sustainable so you should change it!

Take time throughout your day to do something that you love doing, whether it is painting, walking through the park, baking, playing an instrument, or just taking a long warm bath, it’s important to have some ‘me-time.

Time spent out of productivity and into enjoyment is your opportunity to reflect on everything else and make the necessary adjustments.

Take Credit

Give yourself recognition for your accomplishments, when you achieve a small or big goal you have to celebrate yourself, bring the bubbly and praise yourself!

Instead of waiting for recognition from others, you should give yourself a pat on the back when you do something that you can be proud of.

You deserve it!

Fuel Your Inner Advocate

We are all our own worst enemies and are sometimes harder on ourselves than anyone else is - your inner critic can be super judgmental and it has to be silenced.

Try to go one day without criticizing yourself; instead of fueling your inner critic, rather cultivate the little voice in your head that stands up to criticism and defends you - your inner advocate.

This requires a different level of self-awareness, as the inner critic is usually hardwired and has already established a believable (negative) story about you.

Get over that!

Embrace Your Good Qualities

What are your good qualities? Write them all down and embrace them as your strengths while cultivating them to be even stronger.

Even though you might not have the best temperament in the world, you make up for it by having a keen eye for detail; focus on your good qualities and they’ll overshadow weaknesses.

Daily Affirmations

In the same way, as our bodies are a reflection of what we eat, our minds are a reflection of the thoughts and information we put in there, too!

Give yourself daily affirmations like, “I’m Enough!”, “I’m Worthy!”, “I Deserve the Best!”, “I Can Do It!”.

Making these positive phrases part of your daily life will have a drastic effect on how you see yourself.

This works because an affirmation, repeated enough times, can literally rewire your subconscious habits on an emotional, physical and mental level.

Accept Yourself

Every single person has faults and victories, weaknesses and strengths, good characteristics and bad habits - embrace yourself for all that you are: the good and the bad!

When we stop criticizing ourselves for our faults, we can be much more accepting and content in our own skin - accepting yourself is the greatest form of self-love and should be reinforced every day.

The Self-Love Movement Continues

Self-love should never be misunderstood for selfishness or self-obsession, a lot of self-love is a very healthy part of the relationship you have with yourself.

The great thing about continuing this movement and implementing methods to increase the love for yourself is that it will spill over into others’ lives.

Don’t be shy, give yourself a big hug and some much-needed love, and share that with others.

Make self-love contagious.