There’s no one in your life that you spend more time with than yourself. Despite this, most people simply don’t love themselves as wholly and ardently as they should. We’re exposed to celebrity supermen and women all the time through modern media channels, and some people have trouble really appreciating their own ideas, talents, and the positive traits of their personalities. Take a step back, and you’ll agree that a lot of people have simply forgotten what unique, beautiful and miraculous animals humans really are. If you feel you’ve forgotten how to love yourself and treat yourself right, here’s a guide to turning that all around.
Start Chastising Negative Thoughts
A lot of modern people have a major issue with negative patterns of thought. When difficulties in life arise; when you’re staring down the barrel of failure, and you’re on the threshold of some major self-discovery through stepping out of your comfort zone, negative thoughts can sneak in and remind you of your inadequacies, your lack of experience in a certain area, or your inability to perform in the past. However, people who love themselves and know that they’re capable of great things automatically chastise any negative thoughts that find their way in. It’s important to understand that these doubts and fears will always be there, but that a lot of them have no real foundation. Figure this out, and confidence in your abilities will come much more naturally.
Make More Time for Self-Reflection
People who know how to practice self-love and treat themselves right understand the importance of self-reflection, and thinking over their choices and actions. Give yourself enough time to reflect on the person you are, and you’ll empower yourself to press on towards those big milestones with confidence and determination, knowing that you’ll ultimately succeed. Aside from that, you’ll develop into what some people call “a student of life”, learning from all your experiences, your achievements, and your failures.
Make People Know Your Worth
Whether it’s people disrespecting your precious time by showing up late to appointments, or generally allowing liars, cheats, and other negative types into your life, many people could do with reducing their tolerance for B.S. You respect other people’s time, right? In that case, why would you treat yourself with lower standards? Don’t waste any time by waiting around for unreliable people, accepting poor excuses, or generally getting dragged down by the negative comments of others and more general trivialities.
You Give Yourself Enough Breaks
Okay, hard work is important. It pushes us on towards the big goals we want to achieve in life, and helps us strengthen the part of our minds that deals with self-discipline. However, if you’re in the habit of spreading yourself too thin, and not leaving enough time for the really important things in life, this is going to come back to bite you in the long run. Whether it’s reducing the amount you work overtime to spend more of the evening with your kids, or hiring in a company to deal with some of your usual housekeeping jobs, make sure you’re taking a break from all your responsibilities often enough. As long as it doesn’t boil over into laziness, having times where you don’t do much of anything is very important to a healthy mindset.
Take Better Care of Your Body
People who love themselves enough know exactly how they should be treating their bodies. Loving yourself through food, as you’ve probably discovered, isn’t that brief sugar rush that you get from wolfing down a whole bag of M&Ms. In reality, it takes the form of a healthy, wholesome meal and an innocent snack. Sure, a healthy diet may not be as instantly gratifying as the alternatives, but ultimately your body will work better and feel better. You only get one body, so treat it like the precious gift it is!
Start Savoring Every Moment
Even that one that’s just passed! People who really love themselves, and life in general, see each little moment that passes as one more beautiful speck of the bigger picture. Don’t take this as a gloomy note, but there’s really no guarantee that you’re going to live to see tomorrow. With this in mind, why waste a minute of the life you’ve been given by grumbling and complaining? It can be hard for a lot of people, but try making a point to experience each passing moment more fully, even if it’s some dull part of the routine that usually passes you by. Get into this habit, and pretty much everything you do will feel that much more satisfying and precious.
Make More Time to Think About your Goals
While almost everyone else goes through life without a clear idea of the things they want to accomplish, people who truly love themselves always find the time to envision and organize their goals. Take the time to plan things out and create a roadmap for life, and you’ll be well on your way towards loving yourself, and treating yourself right. Again, you only have one life to live, so go out of your way to ensure you’re making the most of it!
Avoid Speaking Ill of Other People
Okay, there are some people who certainly deserve criticism. However, if you know that you tend to point out other people’s mistakes and personality flaws a lot, this is something that you should really be working on. When pointing out the flaws of others, a lot of people don’t realize that their ego is directly involved, and that they’re often projecting traits that they don’t like about themselves onto other people. Pointing fingers and speaking ill of other people is always easier than taking a step back, reflecting on our own personalities, and making a change for the better. However, nothing worth doing is ever easy! When you really know how to love yourself and treat yourself as you deserve to be treated, you’ll quickly realize that all that finger-pointing is stupid and pointless!
Know When to Throw in the Towel
Yes, when it comes to a lot of life’s challenges, people tend to quit too early, and leave the real victories to the people who can grit their teeth through all of life’s hardships. However, when you really love yourself, you need to know when to fold your hand and quit banging your head against the wall. Everyone wants certain things from life, and if you quit as soon as anything gets a little bit tough, you’ll never get even remotely close to all those big milestones. However, if you press too hard for too long, you may look back and find that a passion turned into a harmful obsession, robbing you of all the time you could have used to experience things that are really important. Don’t become too attached to any one endeavor, no matter how badly you want to accomplish it, and know when to walk away.
Choose your Friends Wisely
Another big thing that distinguishes people who love themselves is that they’re very careful when choosing their friends. You wouldn’t allow your kids or someone else that you love to spend a lot of time around people with toxic personalities. By the same token, you shouldn’t let yourself do this either! You don’t have to hang out exclusively with people who fit in exactly with the model of the person you want to be, but you should at least be careful about who you let into your innermost social circle. Whether it feels like it or not, the people we spend the most time with have a profound impact on how we think and feel.
Learn How to Be Alone
Remember, being alone is not the same as being lonely. These days, we can have human interaction in some form by just picking up our phones and tapping the screen a few times. This has meant that a lot of people tend to resent being left alone with their thoughts. When you love yourself as much as you should, you’ll find your company thoroughly enjoyable! We’re not suggesting that you withdraw from society entirely here, just that you should make more of a point of enjoying peace and quiet, and avoiding the anxiety a lot of people suffer when there’s no one around to talk to.
Start Embracing Adventure
Getting out of your comfort zone, and doing things that you’ve never tried before, is one of the most effective ways to find out more about the person you really are. When we’re more in-tune with our desires and fears, the things that drive them, our emotional strengths and weaknesses, loving ourselves and treating ourselves right comes much more naturally. Part of practicing a healthy amount of self-love is making a point to throw your arms around adventure, wherever the opportunity comes up.
There you have a compendium of all the habits you should get into to love yourself more, and treat yourself the way you deserve. Loving others is obviously very important, but if you leave yourself out of the picture for too long, you’ll live to regret it!
