5 Tips To Learn To Love Yourself
Learning to love yourself is immensely important for your emotional health. If positive behavior towards others has great benefits, being positive towards yourself is fundamental. After all, you have to live your whole life with yourself.
Loving yourself also teaches you to appreciate yourself more. Loving yourself can thus be seen as practicing a healthy kind of self-centeredness. You put yourself first and treat yourself well. This is made possible by recognizing and acknowledging yourself and accepting your strengths and weaknesses.
Love yourself first, then others
Moreover , you can only love others by loving yourself first and taking care of yourself (as if you were your own child). If you underestimate yourself, you will never develop a sense of self-confidence, nor will your self-awareness be left with much. Self-love is a priority.
Many people think they don’t love themselves. This is only partly true. We love ourselves because it is impossible not to. We are the only person who is on both the giving and the receiving end. However, there are people who really believe that they don’t love themselves. What they really mean is that there are certain parts of themselves or their personality that they don’t appreciate.
You may also feel like it’s asking too much to love yourself when you feel regret or shame about something you said or thought. This is very normal. After all, you’re not perfect. Everyone has their imperfections and you have to learn to deal with your own. However, this is no reason to stop loving yourself.
Characteristics of people with low self-esteem
Low self-esteem has a bad reputation. A whole series of psychological problems have their origin in this. In addition, it is associated with problems surrounding affection, an excessive need for approval and, for example, anxiety disorders and depression.
People with low self-esteem not only see themselves as inferior, but treat others as such. That is, they project their feelings about themselves onto others. They also often do the following:
- Constantly seeking approval from others
- Want to control others
- Being treated badly by partners, colleagues or friends
- Forming affectionate relationships with people, institutions, ends, or resources.
- Having twisted thoughts
- Maintaining feelings of self-dissatisfaction, self-loathing, self-disgust, and contempt
As you can see, a lack of self-confidence has a whole range of interpersonal, work-related and other types of problems.
Low self-esteem can be the source of many disorders
Learning to love yourself has many benefits. It protects you from mental disorders, among other things. In fact, a lack of self-confidence creates space for depression, anxiety disorders, eating disorders and body perception disorders.
In the elderly, low self-esteem is associated with poor general health, worse disabilities, more anxiety, depression and more pain. It also carries a risk factor of suicide (both thoughts and attempts). In any case, it is only one of several causes that lay the foundation for problems such as the above. This means that a lack of self-confidence in itself is not responsible for an eating disorder, for example.
5 tips to learn to love yourself
Learning to love yourself is related to self-confidence. You can implement a whole host of strategies to improve this, 5 of which we’ll discuss.
Speak to yourself in a positive way
The way you talk to yourself has consequences. If you criticize and blame yourself continuously, you will start to feel bad. If you instead treat yourself with respect and pay attention to the language you use, you will feel much better.
Judging yourself too harshly keeps you from growing and progressing. It is important to learn to see and be happy with your positive sides, and to accept your shortcomings. Trying to change this to make yourself “perfect” is like denying your own humanity. In fact, change is only possible if you can accept your shortcomings.
Take care of your body and soul
The body and the soul cannot be separated. What is good for one is good for another. This means that taking care of yourself physically and spiritually will lead to improved well-being.
A balanced diet, a good night’s sleep, weekly exercise, listening to nice music, walking through nature or a candlelight dinner with someone important to you. These are all kinds of things you can do to make yourself feel better. So do an activity or hobby that nourishes your body and soul.
See mistakes as learning opportunities instead of punishing yourself for them
Once you’ve made a mistake, there’s no point in punishing yourself for it. We all make mistakes and it is important to accept these mistakes as part of life. Of course it’s better if you don’t make mistakes, yes, but pretending it never happens or should ever happen to you is a lie you’re trying to tell yourself.
There is a lesson behind every mistake, an opportunity to learn to do things differently. It is better to focus on this lesson than on punishing yourself.
Reject conflicting signals
A contradictory signal is a compliment and a point of criticism at the same time. It is quite normal for people with a lack of self-confidence to use these. An example of such a contradictory signal could be: “You did well, but it took a very long time!”
Reject these conflicting signals and turn them into grateful compliments to yourself. Let go of the criticism. For example: “I am very happy with the work I have delivered.”
Go to a healthy place, build healthy relationships and engage in healthy activities
Healthy places are places where you can find your inner peace and have fun. This can be all kinds of locations, such as mountains, a beach, the park… If you stay at home, surround yourself with things that are useful and pleasant. Redecorate your house if necessary. In a way, this can help bring order to your life.
Healthy people are those whose presence and companionship bring you peace and energy. Get in touch with people you feel comfortable with and avoid sickening relationships.
On the other hand, healthy activities are also pleasurable activities. They give you the necessary strength to handle the stress of everyday life. Reading a good book, exercising or simply resting are a few examples.
As you can see it is fundamental to learn to love yourself. Like all skills, this requires dedication. Supporting, caring for, and valuing yourself are essential to your emotional health. They are the means with which you can build a happy life.
