Self-Love 💕 is the Best Love
It’s easy to search for love, acceptance, and validation through a certain size, income bracket, zip code, or even by the number of friends we have on social media. But true love and validation have to start with SELF-LOVE. When we don’t accept ourselves- all of our quirks, talents, skills, strengths, and yes - even areas for growth, it’s hard to fully allow the love from others to saturate our hearts and lives.
As a Nutrition Coach, I see so many clients come to the realization that their negative relationship with food, stems from negative comments from others in the past or a perception of how they feel others view them. With social media so accessible, it’s far too easy to get caught in the comparison trap. And that trap leads to loneliness and some truly negative habits and thoughts.
Deep health is comprised of more than what we eat and the type of exercise we do.
It includes our thoughts, patterns, the words we say aloud to ourselves, our sleep quality, and how we unwind and let go of daily stressors. When you think about all of the factors that comprise your overall health, how you take care of yourself and show yourself LOVE ❤️ is the heart of the matter.
Learning to love yourself is a crucial component of health. For some women, practicing self-love was taught and modeled, while others only had an example of toxicity. If you grew up hearing your older sister, aunt, grandma or mother speak poorly of herself, of others or even to you, those comments stick with you. While you may not think decades later they are related, those types of negative comments play on a soundtrack in your mind…on repeat! They ultimately can lead to shame and create patterns of self-sabotage. Wherever you fall on the continuum, it’s never too late to build better habits surrounding self-love practices. 💕
So where do you start? You build in self-care practices. Self-care is the best way to show self-love. Taking time for you to rest, process, let go of stress, forgive, laugh, play, and spend quality time with those that matter the most to you are more healing than any spa day will ever amount to.
Maybe right now you are thinking, “Jenni, you don’t know how busy I am. I just don’t have time to take care of myself." I HEAR YOU LOUD AND CLEAR! I’ve been there before. When I was a teacher, I used to work 60-80 hours a week! And I boasted all the time about how busy I was. It was like a badge of honor. The busier I was, the more successful I felt and worthy of love. But from who? By creating that busy lifestyle, it’s hard to maintain successful relationships with anyone. More than that, by not taking care of myself, I was not able to take care of anyone else. I drove my health into a pit and it’s taken a long time to pull myself away from poor habits, negative thoughts, and a truly toxic way of living.
Self-love isn’t about being selfish. It’s the opposite. It’s about creating boundaries for yourself to allow yourself time to unwind and experience joy. Here are some simple ways you can practice self-love:
Instead of checking work emails after the kids go to bed, choose to soak in a relaxing bubble bath or read your favorite book instead. The emails will be there in the morning.
Instead of feeling defeated from late work hours that you constantly choose take-out, choose to invest in a healthy meal service, or prep meal components on the weekend so you have less to do when you get home and are ravenous.
Instead of skipping lunch again and working straight through, make a choice to pack healthy snacks to hold you over. THEN take a lunch break so you’re blood sugar levels remain more steady throughout the day. This will allow you to stay more focused and productive and potentially get you out of work on time!
Instead of being attached to your phone when you get home, turn off your phone during family meal times or when you’re out with friends so you can be fully present.
Self-love is about changing the words you speak about yourself, both in your head and aloud.
Instead of taking jabs at yourself because you still haven’t lost the last 10 pounds, celebrate your hard work so far by heading to the gym. Or focus on other features that you like about yourself.
Instead of beating yourself up for slipping back into an old negative habit, forgive yourself for poor past choices and CHOOSE to take action to create change.
Choosing to love yourself might seem challenging at first. You don’t have to make a long list of things to change, you simply need to start with 1 area to show yourself more love. That ripple effect will take over and you will quickly start to see the power that being kinder to yourself can have on not only you but those you love and cherish most in the world.
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Cheers to a life.simply.balanced,
Jenni Sills
