Journal

With February being the season of love, it is a time when we reflect on the important relationships we have in our lives. This Valentine’s season, take the time to foster the connection with the most important love in your life: yourself. Tending to your body, mind, spirit, and heart can greatly improve the connection with yourself and therefore self-love. Give yourself the greatest gift of all this Valentine’s Day and nourish your relationship of self-love.

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What is Self-Love?

Before fostering and growing self-love, it is important to understand truly what it means. Self-love is the act and practice of appreciating one’s self. This appreciation grows when one looks after their physical, psychological, and spiritual self. Focusing on putting your own well-being and happiness first in life embodies the act of self-love.

The action of putting oneself’s needs before others is often a difficult task. While a hard thing to do, it is a necessity to build a loving, healthy relationship with yourself. Here are some ways that caring for your body, mind, spirit, and heart can help encourage growth and improve self-love.

Taking Care of Your Body

One of the core aspects of self-love is appreciating and celebrating all that our body does for us on a daily basis. It is easy to self-criticize and find fault in ourselves, but it is the cornerstone of a healthy relationship with one’s self to honor the body.

Exercising daily with movement that helps us feel stronger and healthier is a basis for building self-love. Find an exercise that brings you joy, and this will make it a practice that brings confidence and happiness. Another aspect of moving our bodies that is helpful is mindful movement. This practice is different from just putting ourselves through to motions of working out. It is asking what our body needs in that particular moment and then providing that. Perhaps it is some time on the yoga mat or a hike through the woods. It could be a walk in the sunshine while appreciating the nature around. This will grow that connection between mind and body, allowing for self-love to build.

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While building confidence and self-appreciation for our body through movement is necessary, it is also vital to increase positive thoughts toward ourselves. Speaking uplifting comments towards our bodies and thanking them for all they do daily helps to grow our feelings of confidence and self-love. Nourishing your body with whole fruits and vegetables, sleeping better, and using only organic, pure formulas for beauty and skin care help honor your body. With these kind messages spoken often and the nurturing of your physical self, this relationship you have with yourself will flourish.

Taking Care of Your Mind

A strong connection between mind and body expands our feelings of confidence, self-worth, and self-love. By practicing mindfulness daily, you can focus time and attention on enhancing this connection. Using all your senses to take in your surroundings helps keep you in the present moment. Grounding ourselves and keeping us present is a gift to ourselves because it allows us to truly appreciate what we have and what we are experiencing.

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As well as mindfulness, practicing the art of meditation also enhances positive thoughts and removes feelings of self-doubt. It clears the mind of obstructive thoughts, giving us the ability to see we are worthy of love, especially our own. Meditation can also help us see that we deserve forgiveness. Acknowledging that we have made mistakes in the past, but we can forgive ourselves and move on is vital to the act of self-care. This also can help us break away from self-judgment, making us feel more secure in our feelings and choices.

Taking Care of Your Spirit

Nurturing and replenishing the spirit and Life-Balance of the body allows us to take back control of our life. By finding purpose and meaning in our life, it can drive us toward feelings of self-love and self-worth. Fostering our spirit goes hand-in-hand with the attitude and graciousness we greet life and its challenges. When we enact a giving attitude, we are embodying the bountiful and generous spirit that fills us with joy and self-love. Giving generously can mean being open-handed with our time, our energy, or material things that others may need.

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While replenishing our spirit requires us to be gracious to others, we must also enact feelings of gratitude towards ourselves. Be grateful and appreciative for what life has given you, and make note of these gratitudes. Keeping a gratitude journal where you write daily a few things you are appreciative of helps open up our hearts and minds to thankfulness. Also, by approaching new scenarios and challenges with an open mind we can increase our feelings of growth and spiritual well-being.

Taking Care of Your Heart

For a deep, connected spirit of self-love, taking care of the heart of the matter is essential. When we find a balance between our heart’s desires and our emotions, we can increase our overall well-being and discover a true sense of self. The key to finding these feelings of self-love and self-worth is treating ourselves with kindness. Think of how you would treat a loved one and then care for yourself just as gently. Once you increase your own self-compassion and kindness, you can experience a flourishing, content self-love that overflows into all aspects of your life.

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During this season of love and care, take the time to focus on the most important relationship in your life: the one with yourself. Improving feelings of self-love takes time to nurture the connection, but taking care of the body, mind, spirit, and heart can help this relationship flourish and grow. Increase your feelings of love and self-care this Valentine’s Day, and give yourself the greatest gift of all: self-love.