Conscious living Practice 5 - Self love

Now, this one is HUGE, and can be a lifetime practice🙂

Whether we like it or not, it is a fact that we come into this life alone and we have to leave alone. People can walk by our side, but we need to take this journey by ourselves. And in this lone journey, don't you think we need to be there for ourselves more than anything else?

If you pay a little attention, you will notice that most of the time, our attention is drawn outward, which causes us to rely on outside factors for our own self esteem. If someone praises us, we feel happy and satisfied and if someone criticizes us, we tend to take it personally and start believing that we are not good enough. Our self worth eventually starts depending on what other people think or say of us. We also have the tendency to compare ourselves with others and feel good or bad basis who we compare ourselves with. As a result we end up having an emotional state that is not in our control but entirely dependent on outside factors.

Also people give us less credit than what's due to us. As children we used to get a lot of, " Good girl/ good boy / well done " etc but as adults we are hardly appreciated 🙂 But this doesn't have to dishearten us. Instead of relying always on outside appreciation, we can take the time to appreciate ourselves. And when this is done on a regular basis, our dependence on others for appreciation reduces. And we are less likely to feel bad when criticized, knowing very well our own self worth ( that we have taken the time to build ).

Now coming to the "how". You can choose to maintain a journal where you write down all the things that you love & admire about yourself ( it could be a physical feature or an internal quality ) or you could do some exercise to cultivate self love on a daily basis. 

Some ideas for practice: 

Mirror Image Exercise : Every morning look at yourself in the mirror, look into your own eyes and tell yourself, " I love you"🙂 Note, how it feels. If you find it odd, then maybe it's time to get to know and love yourself a little more. 

Some daily journal ideas : 

1. Write down your strengths

2. Write down some of your internal qualities that you love about yourself.

3. Write about an incident in your life where you showed a positive quality. Something you are proud of.

4. Write down one thing you would like to forgive yourself for.

5. Write positive affirmations to yourself. Write what resonates with you. 

6. Create a "nurture plan" for yourself. It could be some quiet time with a favorite book, a mindful walk, a nutritious meal. Your choice. 

7. Write a "self compassion" note to yourself, about a goof up you committed.

Actions you can take: 

1. Just for today, avoid junk food.

2. Write down all the things that make you happy, and do one of them. 

3. Spend an hour moving your body. 

4. Allow yourself to relax & rest 

The list can go on. Be creative and make sure you do something each day, to nurture yourself, get to know yourself, and love yourself "unconditionally". 

#consciousliving #practice5 #selflove