7 Effective Ways to Deeply Love and Appreciate Yourself

One thing you must always have in mind that if would like other people to love and respect you, you need to treat yourself with love and respect!

Loving yourself deeply can be challenging as many of us find it easier to love others than to love ourselves for various reasons. Regardless of the reason for not loving yourself, it’s about time you start treating yourself with the love you deserve. Self-love isn’t selfish but rather it is a way to get in touch with yourself, your happiness, your wellbeing and a way to show others how to love you.

In this blog post, I am going to walk you through seven ways which will not only help you love and appreciate yourself but help even those around you love and appreciate you more as well.

So, sit back, relax, give yourself a little hug and start practicing the following:

Love Yourself Unconditionally

Allow yourself to drop the conditions you have created to love yourself. Terms like “I will love myself better if I do this or become that.” Choose to accept yourself the way you’re and love yourself unconditionally while also making changes to improve your life.

They aren’t better or worse than you are; they are just different. The only person you can fairly compare yourself to is you. Hence, you must only compare you to you.

Let Go of Negative Self-Talk

Self-talk is the habit of talking to ourselves. If you want to appreciate yourself, you need to start with what you say to yourself and how you say it to yourself. Let go of self-criticism and self-blame, this has a tendency to produce emotions such as anger, guilt, frustration, and sadness, all of which can make you hate yourself.

To create a new habit of gentle self-talk, write down on a piece of paper all the negative thoughts, and commit yourself not to think them or say them to yourself anymore.

Replace these thoughts with positive ones by starting each day by telling yourself something positive like how nice you look or anything that will put a smile on your face.

Practice self-care

Although self-talk is how you begin to appreciate yourself, it’s not enough. Self-care is how you remind yourself and other people that you and your needs are essential too. Occasionally, putting the needs of other people first can get overwhelming, it can make you feel burn out or even worse resentment.

All you need to do might be to take a step back, take care of yourself, and after you feel all relaxed and refreshed to continue, pick up from where you left off.

Having an excellent self-care routine boosts your self-confidence and produces positive feelings. You might be feeling all sad and gloomy on a particular day, and the next (after you’ve done something to take care of yourself), you’ll be so enthusiastic, positive and so confident that you’ll get people talking about you.

Do something nice for yourself today

Celebrate your success, whether big or small. Be proud of what you have achieved and pat yourself in the back while looking at the mirror. You can do something as little as taking few minutes to relax and unwind.

Forgive Yourself

Forgive yourself for all the wrong choices, unhealthy relationships, self-mutilations, bad habits, negative self-talk, mistakes, failures and goals you probably did not achieve. Mistakes are normal and your imperfections are a part of what makes you “you”. Accept all your past with love.

Treat Yourself with A Gift

When was the last time you bought yourself a gift as a token of appreciation and love for the amazing individual that you are? Do it for yourself! Don’t wait for a partner to show you love this way. Get yourself a well-deserving gift, you don’t need to earn it. Remember, you are worth it!

Make Fun A Priority

If fun has taken a back seat in your life, then you might need to reprioritize some things. Make sure you put something fun on your schedule every week. Do not cancel because you have too much work to do. Just like we need rest, we need fun to feel good. Don’t skip this important need. Remember the old saying ‘All work and no play…’

Practice Gratitude

When was the last time you were thankful? Every morning when you wake up, try pointing out things you are grateful for as gratitude is one of the easiest ways to focus on the good in yourself. Thank yourself for everything you do and that you are.

Remember All You Have Accomplished

Appreciating yourself becomes easier when you realized all you have accomplished (big or small) in your life. It is quite unfortunate that we tend to remember failures much more than our achievements.

This will prove to you that you are an accomplished person.

Self-love is something that you need to practice daily, but it can take a while to master. Be patient with yourself and support yourself through tough times. You are the one person you’ll always be with and therefore the one that knows you best. I sincerely hope you spend some time learning to love yourself more.