Love is undeniably one of the greatest feelings in the world. After all, who doesn’t enjoy being cherished, supported, appreciated, and respected? Yet, many people struggle to show themselves the same unconditional love they show to others because of low self-esteem, which can be caused by various reasons. Fortunately, there are certain things you can do to change everything for the better. So keep on reading to learn how to cultivate self-love by doing some very simple things.
How to Cultivate Self-Love: Everything You Need to Know
1. Cultivate Self-Awareness to Better Understand Yourself
Working on self-awareness can help you become more mindful of your thoughts as well as emotions. This is a necessary life skill to have, particularly when you are facing challenging and tough times. It’s exactly during these times that your self-esteem becomes worse, making you believe that everything that’s happening is your fault.
And although that’s not true, you can’t help but fall victim to your thoughts. And that’s exactly why you should work on your self-awareness skills. They can help you identify and cut out any toxic thought the moment it arises instead of allowing it to stay in your mind and keep tormenting you.
You can also do the same with emotions by trying to be more attentive toward them. You can even ask yourself why you are feeling the way you do to help you make more sense of your current emotional state and how it’s affecting your self-perception.
Also, try to remind yourself that your negative thoughts and emotions don’t get to decide what kind of person you are. Their only goal is to make you feel bad about yourself and skew your self-perception. So don’t let them do that to you.
2. Be More Forgiving Toward Yourself
Whether it’s a mistake you made or a bad habit you can’t break, show some compassion and forgiveness to yourself.
Imagine if you treated your loved ones the same you treat yourself; you’d probably be disappointed by your actions. So why should you treat yourself any differently? After all, you are just as worthy of receiving compassion and forgiveness as other people important to you.
Try practicing this method; the next time you are about to criticize yourself for something, imagine that it’s your friend or family member standing in front of you. What would you say to them in that situation? Would you speak the words of comfort to them? Would you cheer them up?
This method can help you remind yourself that you are a human, just like everybody else, and that you are not meant to be perfect. Therefore, harshly criticizing yourself is not something you should do.
3. Set Boundaries
When you lack self-esteem, setting boundaries can seem a challenging thing to do. But it’s something you need to master because otherwise, people will always be able to take advantage of you, making you feel even worse about yourself.
Ask yourself what kinds of behaviors you will not tolerate from others and don’t be afraid to say “no” when you don’t want to do something. This will help you stay in control of your life whilst reminding you that people should treat you with the respect you rightfully deserve.
4. Prioritize Yourself More
Don’t let certain people convince you that prioritizing yourself is selfish. There is nothing even remotely similar between selfishness and self-prioritization. A selfish person is someone who is self-absorbed to the point of not caring about anybody other than their own self. On the other hand, a person who prioritizes themselves is an individual who practices self-love and self-care but doesn’t forget about others either.
When you have low self-esteem, you tend to mistakenly believe that you don’t deserve to prioritize yourself. Or you have that guilty feeling even when you decide to put yourself first.
What you need to remember is that all of these are simply consequences of your low self-esteem rather than the truth you must accept. Of course this doesn’t mean you should never lend a helping hand to your loved ones or ignore them. All it means is that there’s nothing wrong with prioritizing yourself every now and then.
5. Practice Positive Affirmations
Think of positive affirmations as positively charged mantras that can lift up your spirit, boost motivation, and improve self-esteem. As a matter of fact, practicing positive affirmations is considered one of the best forms of self-help.
And what makes it even better is that it’s very simple to do. You just need to come up with a positive statement you can encourage yourself with, especially during difficult times.
Remember, consistency is key, so you should do your best to keep this habit. And the more consistent you’ll be, the stronger the effects will be.
6. Become More Selective With Your Time
Time is something we can never get back once it’s lost, so it’s important to be picky when it comes to sharing it with others. This means that you should give your valuable time only to those who truly care about you and love to encourage you. On the same note, you need to let go of people who bring you down and make your self-esteem even worse. Such individuals are like toxic grass you should cut out from the lands of your life as soon as possible. Don’t wait for red flags to pile up; just ask them to get out of your life the moment they do something unforgivable.
7. Regularly Check In With Yourself
Consistent check-ins are an essential part of self-love you shouldn’t forget about. So make sure to ask yourself what you need at any given moment.
For example, if you had an exhausting week, you can think of ways to make yourself feel relaxed and refreshed. Whether it is getting a massage, reading a book, or rewatching your favorite movie, each of them can be a gesture of self-love and self-care that can lift your spirits.
And regardless of what method you choose, what’s important is not to feel guilty while giving yourself the love and care you deserve.
Final Thoughts
Cultivating self-love may not be an easy endeavor to take, but it’s certainly the one that can leave you feeling more fulfilled in life. Therefore, it’s important to stay patient in this process and keep trying until you master the art of self-love.
