When talking about self loving themself people tend to think that it is an egotistical and selfish way to live a life. Too proud to listen, with heads in the clouds are just some of many ways to describe this misconception.
Simply put self love is treating, accepting, and loving oneself. Take care of your needs and desires so you can function well as a human being. Becoming more compassionate and happier in the long run.
As with most things, there can be good and bad sides, the same is with self love. If done correctly self love can be the most beautiful thing that can happen to your life. But if it goes wrong there will be very bad consequences for that behavior.
Do not get yourself into that trap you have to practice self loving care and attend to every aspect of your being. Work on your weaknesses but also polish your strengths too.
Do not be too critical of your self should be the first thing you need to focus on. Research shows that self criticism makes us weaker and limits our understanding of the mistakes we made.
Truth be told most of us have this problem. Not only that but we are thinking about our self worth through competition with others. These things can eventually wear you down.
Nobody is perfect, and everybody has their own problems both externally and internally. Listening to your inner voice and following your gut feeling is a good way to attend to your needs. Express your feelings they are representing you after all.
Self love is a great asset to have in your life. However, if you practice it too lenient or focus only on certain aspects of it things can go down the rails, so you have to be careful in your choosing what you want to accomplish with it.
Why is Self Loving Good?
Peace – Taking care of yourself can be detrimental when dealing with your anxiety and moody behavior. Realizing that you are worthy of love and that you are a good and not a perfect person can give you the perspective not to take life so seriously. This will make you more comfortable with whatever life throws on your way.
Compassionate – When practicing self love you tend to be more compassionate to yourself and to others as well. That feeling and characteristic is not going away. We as humans tend to have the basic trait to be compassionate to others and help them in time of need.
Accept Yourself – Self loving promotes exploring and discovering who you really are. When diving into your experiences, feelings, and emotions you are discovering who you really are. You will get a clear and full picture of yourself, so you know who you dealing with. People can change in time. You can accept that this is who you are currently and you can improve.
Many find this to be difficult to achieve, however, I have written a post that can further explain to you that it is not so difficult to achieve full acceptance.
Increase productivity – When your mind and body is ready, clear and plentiful you are willing to take on any work that needs to be done. You will be more prepared for hardships when you are treated well. The key is to give you challenges all the time but also to tend to your needs when preparing for them. Good preparation can be half of the work.
Being happy and mindful – Felling of achievement and accomplishment improvement can all result in increased happiness from within. You are fully aware of what you are doing and your progress. Being in tune with yourself and having an objectively clear picture of yourself not only will make you feel proud of yourself but also happy in that moment. It is a gift that keeps on giving.
Positivity – Being too critical and judgmental can bring negative thoughts about oneself. If not treated at all can surpass healthy boundaries and become low self esteem. Practicing self love brings positive thoughts about yourself. Negative ones will stay but you will focus more on the positive ones. finding the strength to pull them out is the greatest mental achievement that you can do.
In short practicing self love in a healthy and productive way can increase your overall well being, and happiness. When doing it for a longer period of time you will reinforce your positivity, and mental strength so it will become your characteristic.
Can self love be Harmful?
When practicing self love it is very important to practice every aspect of it. If you attend only one thing that you think you should need to work on that can have varying results in the end.
Think of yourself as a car for a moment. You learn what you need to work on that car, and you decide only to change the oil. However, you leave all the other parts of the car that need your attention. When you want to drive it chances are the car is not ready to be driven at all. The same can be applied to our self love practice.
Criticism – When you are too self centered from wrongly practicing self love you are not leaving room for anything and anyone. That means that you have not only accepted yourself fully, but you also leave no place for compassion to take place. When someone is criticizing your behavior you are looking as an attack on your whole being.
Therefore you are not peaceful, calm or willing to learn from that other perspective. You can’t see the whole forest from a single tree. It takes a lot of time to put yourself into an objective perspective and to start to grow in a good and positive manner.
Overconfidence -When you are an overachiever, feel good about yourself but do not pay attention for that to go over your head, you start to feel invincible and perfect. Being overconfident in your abilities and thinking highly of yourself and low on others can have disastrous results and consequences.
Being too cocky not only doesn’t look pretty but you don feel fulfillment out of it. In short term, yes, but you are creating a never-ending void inside you. You can alienate yourself from others and from your true self.
Competitive – Seeing other people as obstacles rather than possible mentors and friends. When your perfectionism takes place, you are starting to be competitive with everyone around you. You belittle everyone and you tap yourself on the back. If you stay for too long with that kind of thinking you will stay alone.
When feeling rushed, follow your gut instinct on some situation that you hastily want to finish. Take your time. Enjoy the moments when socializing. Don’t judge too quickly. Everyone has their own stories and experiences that created them.
When not practicing self love correctly you can easily become too self absorbed and think too highly of yourself. Take baby steps if needed but tread your practice carefully and as objectively as possible. Do not try to become perfect, just practice correctly, be patient and you will be fine.
If you need to read further and to check if you are loving yourself too much, please check this post.
How to practice Self Love and Improve?
Now that you are aware of the good sides and bad sides of practicing self love let’s dive into how can you practice it correctly. But before that, you must be aware that you need to arm yourself with patience and consistency without it you will get nowhere.
Being in tune – Your emotions matter. Being in tune with yourself is a great place to start practicing your self love. Be honest with yourself. After all, nobody can hear your negativity and positivity. Tell yourself what you are thinking about yourself.
Talking honestly to yourself can also have a positive effect when you honestly believe that everything is going to be alright. It will ease the pressure on your shoulders and will relax you for the upcoming struggle.
Affirmations – Similar to self talk, affirmations are positive self talk aimed to focus on obtaining a specific trait or to achieve some goal. They are spoken out loud and done every day. Involve yourself with your own words to be able to believe in what you are saying.
Repeating positive words to yourself over and over will bring you positive changes. Our mind and body don’t know the difference between negative self talk and positive self talk, so use it to your advantage.
If you need more help creating your own affirmations, click here.
Accepting yourself – Humans are prone to mistakes. We also tend to forget our achievements and allow our mistakes to be crucial to our future endeavors. No matter how bad you make some mistake, don’t let it hold you.
It is not the end of the world. Try to learn and extract all information from it. Your experience will be enriched and do not be fearful of those situations in the future. They will come again, and now you will be prepared. Accept yourself for who you are. Don’t even try to be somebody else. Be you and express yourself.
Stop Comparing – We already cover this, however it is necessary to understand fully why. At your current mindset and state, nobody is the same right now in the world. You don’t have the same experience as anybody else. You are unique in your own way. Comparing yourself to others in not only not objective but also not beneficial to you in the long run.
Continue your journey by yourself, it is your life and nobody can tell you what is good or bad for you. Enjoy your adventure, when it comes to other people share your experience and learn from others. Letting go of negativity and comparing is paramount for your improvement.
Thanks for reading, have a nice day and take care.
