Being your own Best Friend

Being your own best friend is going to be a "lifetime practice", 

and definitely worth the effort ❤️

Unless we are familiar with the practice of self love / self care, we may go about our lives with an outward focus, reacting more than responding to people and life situations. We may also feel threatened or fearful when things don't go our way. 

Many things come up for us during the day - we may goof up something, someone might say something to us that we don't like, our emotions fluctuate ( the reason for this could be purely physiological), we may feel anxious about something, things may not go as per our plan.

Our consistent self love/ self care practice can help us during these times. Our practice ( I will talk more about, what this practice can be, just a little bit later ), can give us the strength to receive these unforeseen events/ feelings with a little more ease and grace. 

All it takes is a few minutes of consistent "loving care towards one's own self". So it becomes easy for us to be there for "ourselves" when things get rough.

Some of the ways in which you can start ingraining "love for yourself" are: 

1. Mirror Image Exercise : Everyday, take a few minutes to look at your own eyes in the mirror, and tell yourself, "I love you". It might seem very odd the first time around, but trust me, you will get better and more comfortable with time. 

If saying, "I love you" to yourself feels very uncomfortable, then maybe just begin with ,"I accept you just the way you are", or, "I like you". Once you are comfortable with this, you can progress to, "I love you". If you stick with the practice, you will get to say , "I love you" to yourself pretty soon❤️ 

Some of my students who were initially very hesitant with the practice, now do it with a big grin on their faces 🙂 

2. Speak to yourself kindly : Pay attention to your internal dialogue. Thoughts like, "I am not good enough", "I am not worthy of love", "I don't deserve anything", "I will be loved only when I become successful" can creep in without our conscious knowledge. To avoid such unconscious thoughts entering your mind, consciously whisper to yourself words of loving kindness such as - " May I be happy", " May I be peaceful", " May I be at ease", " I am enough", " I am free to be who I want", " I love myself", or any other affirmation that feels good and appropriate for you. Don't just say it mechanically. Say it from your heart, feel from your heart and you will begin to believe it. 

3. Keep a journal. I like to call mine, "the love journal". If it feels too cheesy to you😁, you can call it something else. The idea is to key in all the things you love and admire about yourself on a daily basis. I like to do this exercise at the end of my day. 

These practices don't take too much time to do but when done consistently have a lasting effect on how you approach life. Adding what I like to call, "ease" into your life❤️

I hope you feel inspired to not just start your practice but stay consistent with it 💖🌸