Show some love, care, and affection to ourselves

ONE of the things meditation helps us focus on is being more appreciative of who we are as a person and also to show some love, care, and affection to ourselves. By providing this much attention to our very beings, we focus on the most important relationship in our lives, and that is with ourselves. We may show love to ourselves by rewarding our sense of achievement or general good mood by treating ourselves to a nice dinner or a present such as clothes or a trip to a day spa. In other cases, we react too harshly, judgmentally, or are overly critical when we fall short of our expectations or fail in achieving our goals. At this stage, we begin to punish ourselves by berating ourselves or taking the blame for all of our perceived shortcomings.

It is important to realize that we also need to show ourselves some love and care at the times we need it the most, particularly when we fall short of our goals.

By assuring ourselves that we are not disappointed with our own efforts and can strive to try harder the next time, we feel a sense of personal growth, stronger motivation, and a higher level of satisfaction that leads towards building a healthier mindset. It isn’t an easy undertaking; practicing self-love requires a great deal of deprogramming from our earlier state of self- deprecation, and this requires a great deal of patience, practice, and belief in ourselves.

YOU can actually practice self-love immediately by creating a routine around yourself to focus on your goals and achievements. For starters, you can create a vision board that is a physical manifestation to visualize your goals. You can do this by gathering small items and placing them on a board that you can see every day. These items could be anything such as quotations, verses, photographs, artwork, totems or icons, magazine clippings, and so on. All of these things can trigger motivation as well as a positive mindset in order for you to focus on achieving your goals. Seeing these items over and over again on a daily basis helps you to not just identify your end goals, but also to work out the methods by which you can achieve them. If an item on your vision board represents a promotion, then you have to visualize in your mind the steps needed to achieve that goal. The vision board helps you to get in the right frame of mind as well as identify the path to take, and it provides much-needed clarity to the process.

YOU can also learn more about personality types to get an idea about how to become more compassionate towards yourself. Learning more and more details about the kind of person you are and what you are capable of helps you to appreciate your uniqueness and tap into your abilities, skills, and personal qualities that will help you to get ahead. For example, if you have an introverted nature then you might be pushing down your introvert tendencies just to fit into an environment where extroverts thrive. However, you need to embrace your introverted nature and recognize what makes you unique in this world. There are things that only you are capable of and that sets you apart from the rest.

IT isn’t just enough that you love your inner self. You must learn to love your outer self as well. The more you care about your body and appreciate how you look, the better you will feel about yourself from within. Radiating an image of confidence and positivity can also be manifested physically by exercising and letting your body become fit and strong.

SIMPLE exercises such as yoga or interval training outdoors can help you build a strong foundation to build your personality both inside and out. Working out can be more effective if you do it outdoors in nature. It helps you to quickly navigate away from negative energy and feel much better about yourself as you do it. Green spaces are highly conducive and invigorating as they let you free yourself from your existing burdens, not to mention the fresh air and sunlight do wonders for your body.

AND if you really want to show yourself some love, why not say it with a heartfelt message? It could be in the form of a letter, an email, or a text. Write about a positive quality you admire in yourself, or an achievement that you are proud of. More often than not, we write all sorts of praise for people we love and admire, such as our friends, family, and peers. The same amount of admiration needs to be shown for yourself, if not more. It will also help you reflect on all the aspects that you have thought of and become more motivated with what you have set out to accomplish in the future.

YOU should also check in with your inner self more often and find the voice that you hear every day. Your inner voice tells you many things that you may need to get through the day. A great deal of this could be positive reinforcement and affirmations. So you have to check your tone with how you respond to yourself, particularly to be more positive, encouraging, forgiving, empowering, and above all else, kind. Such inner dialogue is crucial for you to support your journey towards self-love. It will also help to switch to something more positive if you feel that negative thoughts are gaining the upper hand. For example, if you make an error or mistake, instead of regretting it and blaming yourself for your inefficiencies, focus on how you can learn from this mistake and talk to yourself about what you would do differently next time to achieve more positive results.