4 Steps on how to be more Self Caring and Self-Loving

“Find the love you seek, by first finding the love within yourself.
Learn to rest in that place within you that is your true home.”
~Sri Ravi Shankar
Having a great relationship with yourself is arguably one of the most important one you’ll ever have. When you begin your day, throughout the day, and at the end will always matter to you. You often try to try to escape that voice in our head but no matter how hard you try you cannot escape it-that voice in your head. It is that voice that you hear, the one that can inspire you, move you or tear you down. It can motivate you to go after your dreams or give you the push you need to keep going.

Being Self-caring and self-loving allows you to have a supportive, accepting, and encouraging voice-this allows you to lead a live or more success, happiness, and peace within yourself.
Most importantly, you’ll be more inclined to give yourself the best support you’ve always needed. Having self-love is a prerequisite to being one within yourself and caring for yourself more.

Living most of my life with self-doubt, anxiety and depression; learning to love myself was the most radical shift in my life, but pleasant to feeling to have. After making this shift, I have taken the steps to honor myself and body even more. This shift have caused me to have more confidence and courage to pursue the life, that which I am most afraid to live-the live that I have always wanted. This change I feel have allowed me to see myself for who I really am, not caring much about the opinions of others, not looking for external validation. I know my worth and no once can take that from me.

Being on the journey to self-care and self-love, it takes time and often times more courage and commitment to stay true to oneself, but it is WORTH it.

Become more mindful- You have to be careful of the ways in which you talk to and treat yourself. Pay close attention-how am I communicating with myself? Am I taking good care of me? What are the standards that I hold myself true to? Its okay to have greater standards for yourself than the one you have for others. When this happens, know that it is okay, and this is the first steps to self-awareness and change.

Focus on what you need rather than what you want- How you look at yourself matters, stop belittling yourself, knowledge or experience. Always remember that the words we speak to ourselves are powerful and they create our reality. When you speak positively about yourself, the more you feel and become it. You can start by changing the negative words your speak about yourself to something more positive. For example, “I am dump or I am fat”, with “I am open to learn, I am working on growing my intellect, my body is learning to find it’s rightful weight and I am working towards being my best self.

Implement a good self-care routine- Start implementing some self-care routine as you would caring for others. Often times overlooking the small things that allows us to feel cared for is easier to do than negative things we let creep into our lives. When speaking to yourself, ask yourself-will I say this to my best friend? If your answer is no, change it to something more positive and self-nurturing. Self-care routine can be something that allows us to start our day or end our day after a stressful day feeling more relaxed and hopeful for better days ahead. Taking the to do something for yourself, as small as taking a walk to the park by yourself, going to the mall, taking yourself to the movies, dinner, or even spa. This is one of the most fulfilling feelings critical to implementing a life changing routine for self-care and self-love. If you are not aware of the feelings that allows you to have a sense of self-worth, it’s going to be challenging to take the next step: setting boundaries.

Judge yourself less – More often than none we make mistakes – we all make mistakes, no one is exempted. As mush as you take the time to appreciate other’s and often times overlook their flaws, give yourself that same benefit of the doubt and judge yourself less. Being self-aware is one of the best benefits when it comes to setting boundaries in order to appreciate yourself more. Start accepting yourself more regardless of your flaws, that is what makes us human-the fact that we are all prone to making ample amount of mistakes. What matters is, how do we treat ourselves when we fall short of the expectations and standards, we set for ourselves? It is to start by taking the time out to look deep within yourself and appreciate all the good.