How to love yourself more if you don’t love yourself… at all?
How to love yourself if you don’t even look at yourself in the mirror anymore.
You brush your teeth, do your hair, put some makeup on (if any) and start your day with zero energy.
And it’s not like something major is wrong.
I mean, yeah, life isn’t perfect, but you are somewhat healthy, you have a family, a few friends, a job…
What’s wrong then?
Where is the powerful YOU? Where is your urge and passion for life? Where is the love for yourself?
Why can’t you just be happy with who you are? Why does it have to be so hard to do the one thing that everyone says is the most important thing in the world?
Why does it have to be so hard to do the one thing that everyone says is the most important thing in the world?Help!
Do you struggle with loving yourself?
So do I.
Tough times require a tough reaction.
I have 42 things you could do to help you love yourself. I use a combination of a few of them.
My Advice? Create yours!
This post has tons of value and information, and you can read all of my proven tips to love yourself better here. But it is a long read, and it’s also one of those posts you don’t want to go through just once. If it’s more convenient for you, get the PDF for $5 and save it on your device. It has the same information (plus photos), but excludes the ads and stays on your device for further reference. I would love to offer the PDF for free, but growing a business costs money, and yes, $5 helps a lot. Click here if you’d like to get it.
42 Magical Tips on How To Love Yourself More
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1. Create a Journal Dedicated to Yourself
Start your own Self-Love Journal dedicated to your new mission – loving yourself more.
Map out inside things that you’d like to try, ideas on what to put into practice, and track your progress.
Make yourself a photo at the beginning of your journey and keep it inside, so that you could play “Before and After” later on.
There will be a difference, I know it.
Start your own Self-Love Journal dedicated to your new mission - loving yourself more.Write inside quotes that inspire you, thoughts that crossed your mind and are positive, self-loving.
Keep this journal near you, somewhere where you could see it all the time. Devote yourself to filling this journal with things that help you love yourself more.
2. First Things First – Physical Self-care
Although I place it in a second position… go figure!
Looking after your physical body comes before looking after your mental self.
Looking after your physical body comes before looking after your mental self.American psychologist Abraham Maslow creates in 1942 the popular Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.
The pyramid is divided into 5 stages each one representing different needs in people’s life.
You could very well see this pyramid as a lather too.
To meet any of the needs on it, you must cover its previous steps first.
Meaning, if you would like to reach self-actualization you must start by satisfying your physiological needs, be safe (physically, emotionally, and be healthy), belong to a social community (family, friendship, intimacy), and reach recognition (from others and yourself too).
You cannot reach any desired level of the pyramid if you don’t cover the base of it – your physiological wellbeing.
See it as preparation for life.
What do you do before you go to work?
You wake up, brush your teeth, wash your face, comb your hair, and dress. No matter your job, you go through a specific preparation for it, don’t you?
Look at this self-loving process in the same way.
Your new job is to love yourself more, right? Well, with that said, prepare yourself for your position. Look after your physical body.
Very often when I struggle with self-confidence, and I don’t like myself I find it’s when I neglect my body – I haven’t done any face mask, my eyebrows are a mess, or I’ve just forgotten to drink enough water and eat regularly.
Whatever it is that you ignore about your body, start there.
3. Another Self-Check – Stress at Work
Sometimes, we are just stressed, exhausted and hate everything around us, including ourselves.
Ask yourself if your state of mind (not loving yourself anymore) is something new for you or you struggle with it your whole life.
If it’s something new and you are surprised by yourself, it could be job-related. Ask for a few days off work, reduce the hours you spend there, find time to sleep more, and distance yourself from your work world.
I know it’s easier said than done, but loving yourself requires you to be firm about what takes your happiness away from you.
4. I Love Myself Box or List
Choose a box, a big jar, or use your Self-Love Journal for this one.
Start by writing on a piece of paper everything you love about yourself. Don’t be shy but be honest. No one else is going to read it.
Place the list in the box and every day add one more thing you love about yourself, even you participated in, or anything that was out of your normal routine.
For example, let’s say you walk on the street and the person in front of you drops a file with documents on the ground, and you go to help him. Later, write this on a piece of paper and place it in the box.
In one year’s time, you will forget you did such a kind thing. But going through the box will remind you about it. “Oh, yes, it’s true, I did this!” and you smile at yourself.
Go through these lists as often as you need. They are there to help you in the process.
5. List of Things You Don’t Like About Yourself
The idea of this post is to help you do some inner work, not to sugarcoat life.
There are things you don’t like or love about yourself. It’s normal. It’s expected.
However, they shouldn’t be on your way to inner happiness. Yet, ignoring them won’t do the job.
Facing and accepting we have flaws is essential. Your parents, your siblings or your closest friends aren’t perfect either, right? This doesn’t stop you from loving them, though.
At the same time, your love for them doesn’t prevent you from acknowledging they have flaws either.
Write down a list of things you are unhappy about yourself. Again, be honest, this is a private list no one else will read.
6. See If You Could Change Something On That List
See if there’s something you could work on.
If yes, map out a few ideas on how to do it. This is not changing your personality but a simple self-improving process, and it’s an important part of the process.
If you cannot change something you don’t enjoy about yourself, accept it and learn that it’s part of you.
7. If You Wouldn’t Tell It To Your Best Friend, Why Would You Tell It To Yourself?
You cannot proceed with any of the points that follow unless you promise yourself something.
NO MORE NEGATIVE SELF-THOUGHTS.
Would you look at your best friend’s eyes and tell them they are fat, stupid, unsuccessful, look terrible, don’t deserve love, or anything else with a similar meaning?
Why do you tell it to yourself then?
Would you look at your best friend's eyes and tell them they are fat, stupid, unsuccessful, look terrible, don't deserve love or anything else with a similar meaning? Why do you tell it to yourself then?Get rid of negative self-talk immediately from your life. No one else could stop you from doing it. You have the responsibility to do it. Go in front of the mirror and tell yourself: I AM ENOUGH.
8. I Am Enough
A few days ago I was looking for a short video for my regular morning meditation. I found absolutely life-changing short morning meditation which I would like to share with you here.
It brought tears to my eyes.
We often forget to focus on today, on this moment, and on things and people we have in our lives now. Running after a future, that never comes, we neglect to express gratitude and acknowledge that who we are and what we are is enough.
Today. Here. It’s enough. We are enough.
Today. Here. It's enough. We are enough.Play the video below, close your eyes and dedicate the next minutes to yourself.
9. Stop Comparing Yourself With Others
A logical follow-up to the previous point.
If you wake up in the morning and your first move of the day is to check your social media and see how “others don’t waste their time as you do” (self-talk you love to go through), make it stop right now.
I know you don’t want to delete your social media profiles.
Reduce the time you spend on it.
Stop comparing yourself to everyone around you. We all have different paths to walk on this Earth, and none of us is “behind” or “ahead” in life.
You are exactly where you need to be to become exactly who you need to become.
You are exactly where you need to be to become exactly who you need to become.Comparing with people who have more, do more, live more is a rude self-destructive act and won’t do you any good.
As I said above, your struggle with self-esteem and self-love is a push from God or the Universe (whichever you prefer) to work on yourself, to rediscover the love within you, and live YOUR life.
This is your task. You are already working on it. Just focus on your job.
10. Go Out More Often
Instead of spending time on social media, go out.
Fresh air and the Sun are some of the best free healers you have access to.
Meet with friends, family or just walk in the park. Whichever you prefer or you’re able to do – go for it.
If you use public transport to go to work – get off the bus at the previous stop and walk for 10-15 minutes before you start your working day.
If you drive – park the car further away from your workplace and give yourself a few more minutes to breathe the cold morning air.
Feel how your cheeks are getting red, brushed by the morning wind, enjoy the Sun’s kisses on your forehead. Think about these things while walking and nothing else. Try it.
11. Wake Up Early
Do you feel like you don’t have enough time for yourself and that’s the reason you cannot boost your self-love?
Does your day go in a hectic running to meet different people and jump from one place to another?
If you don’t have the option to reduce your daily tasks, wake up early to make more time for yourself.
I know this might sound horrible to you, but it’s all about the habit.
Waking up late is a habit. Waking up early is another habit.
Pull the time with 10 minutes earlier every day until you reach the point where you feel like you have enough time to dedicate to yourself.
I wake up at 2:30 a.m. almost every morning so I could maintain a healthy relationship with my partner (I explain more about this in my other post – A Security Guard Told Me The Secret To a Successful Marriage). Waking up so early helps me also write more (I’m a full-time blogger) and find time for myself.
Do I advocate for waking up at 2:30 a.m.?
Definitely no.
I ask you to wake up earlier than you do right now.
Create the time for yourself and use it for developing self-love.
Take a shower, have breakfast, drink your coffee enjoying every sip of it, write in your journal, meditate, dance… whatever makes you happy. The only condition is to be uplifting and serving your self-love needs.
12. Have a Gratitude Journal
If you wonder what I do at 3 a.m. – I write in my gratitude journal.
The benefits of having a gratitude journal are countless and 100% of the people who have one, will confirm this.
I started doing it after a devastating breakup almost three years ago. I was in a very, very bad place and many things were uncertain.
I talk more about this and how to fight depression and loneliness in this post here.
That was the moment when I decided to start a gratitude journal, and although later I stopped for a while, now I’m back and intend to never stop. Being thankful for what you have is a huge booster for your self-love.
Drowning in your sorrow and depression, choking with anxiety – none of these is something you could go out of without help. And the best help is the one you offer to yourself. In the beginning, you might feel like there’s nothing to be grateful for. Yet, there is.
Open a new page in your journal and start every sentence with the words “I am grateful for…”
List everything that happened today or yesterday. Tell the journal how grateful you are for having a family, having a job, having food in the fridge, clothes on your back, water in the bathroom… all that is true, isn’t it?
Write it down or if you don’t have the time to do it, tell it to yourself while preparing the food, going to work, etc.
13. Communicate With Children
Children are like little rays of sunshine running around us all the time. Sometimes only looking at them is exhausting and makes us wonder where do they find all that energy from?
But do you know what fascinates me the most about them?
The fact that they share their energy with the people around them. You might frown and stay away from playing with your children or your sister’s kids, but if you start, you feel energized immediately. Their laugh wakes up our brain and makes us laugh too.
Spend more time with children, if you can. Soak from their energy, laugh with them, play with them, give them your best and they will return the favor.
14. Help Others
Want to know how to love yourself more and more?
Do something good for others. For the people around you. For total strangers. Do good.
It’s proven that being good with others and helping them, reduces stress and makes us feel better. Even if you do the first good thing with a little bit of selfish reason, it doesn’t make it less good for the person you helped.
There are so many ways to help people. And there are way too many people in need of help.
There’s a beautiful quote I’d like to share with you by Matthieu Ricard. In his book “Happiness: A Guide To Developing Life’s Most Important Skill” he says:
“Even if we display every outward sign of happiness, we can never be truly happy if we dissociate ourselves from the happiness of others… Our own desire for happiness is as legitimate as anyone else’s. And in order to love others, we must learn to love ourselves. It’s not about swooning over the color of our own eyes, our figure, or some personality trait, but about giving due recognition to the desire to live each moment of existence as a moment of meaning and fulfillment. To love oneself is to love life. It is essential to understand that we make ourselves happy in making others happy.”
I read this book for free with my Kindle Unlimited. Sign Up from here to get 30 days free trial.
15. Discover Positive Affirmations
Affirmations are positive thoughts we repeatedly and intentionally tell ourselves.
There are negative affirmations as well, and you are most likely ruling them right now. If you constantly tell yourself you can’t do something, or you are not good at a specific thing, these are negative affirmations.
Let’s replace them with positive ones.
Many authors talk about the power of affirmations and how to squeeze all the goodness out of them and use it to help ourselves.
Below, you will find a list of positive affirmations about loving yourself you could implement in your life starting now. If you like any of them write it down or copy it on your phone and start repeating it to yourself throughout the day.
When you wake up in the morning, start your day by saying this affirmation out loud or silently in your mind as many times as possible. Do it several times in the day and again, before you go to sleep.
Keep repeating it as a pray, manifesting the goodness in your life.
This post is useful but long. If you’d prefer to keep reading it later, save it to your device for the price of a pack of gums. Do you think your self-love journey is worth that much? Click here to get it.
Focus on the affirmation while you repeat it.
Imagine it’s true (even if you don’t believe in it yet) and just for these few minutes give it the power to control your emotions.
- I am loved.
- I honor my feelings.
- I am worthy of love.
- I am in peace with myself.
- I know and love myself just the way I am.
- I can do everything I set my mind to.
- I do my best every single day and this is enough.
- Happiness is part of my everyday life.
- I am calm.
- I help others and this makes me happy.
- I express myself openly and freely.
- I am unique.
- I appreciate myself and love myself for who I am.
16. Distance Yourself From People Who Don’t Support You
Your friends and family’s job isn’t to ignore bad things in your life.
They shouldn’t sugarcoat your mistakes.
However, their job isn’t to bring you down and make you feel miserable either.
If you have people around you that suck your energy out of you, depress you, and make you feel bad about yourself, they aren’t a good fit for you, even if you share the same blood.
Distance yourself from them as much as you can and as much as it feels comfortable for you. I don’t encourage you to stop any communication, but to build a mental barrier between you and them. Don’t allow them to poke your anxiety, create self-doubts or depress you.
17. Forgive Yourself For Whatever Happened
We all have done or said things we regret later.
Every morning take a few minutes out of your day and dedicate them on consciously thinking about these things for a while and then letting them go.
Every morning take a few minutes out of your day and dedicate them on consciously thinking about these things for a while and then letting them go.Forgive yourself for whatever you did. Believe it was the best possible decision for you at this moment.
Understand it’s inevitable no matter how painful it was. Forgive yourself. Release the guilt and smile at it saying:
“I forgive myself. I let go of the guilt and choose to love myself again. I forgive.”
18. Do Everything With Love In Mind
This is an exercise I recently did in another field of my life. It helped me change my mindset towards something I resented for over two years.
It is so helpful that I decided to share it with you here.
Approach everything in life with love.
Approach everything in life with love.No just levitating like a Saint above others, but simply asking yourself some fundamental questions:
“What would I do if I loved this process?”
“How would I talk to this person if I loved him? What would I tell him? What intonation and which words would I use?”
“How would I look after my home if I truly loved it? What would I do differently? How would I look after it?”
“How would I do my job if it was something I loved doing? How would I spend my day at the office if I loved my time in it?”
“How would I react in this situation if I loved myself? What would I change in my life? What would I do for myself today if I loved myself?”
This simple exercise, if done often, could transform your mind.
In the beginning, you will start asking yourself these questions after the specific event happened. With the time though, you will start catching yourself asking them in the middle of the situation. After that, you will begin acting according to “what if I loved it”.
Your actions will meet your “I-LOVE-MYSELF” expectations and things will slowly start falling into place. Try it.
19. Prioritize Yourself
I know that society confuses us if we should prioritize others or ourselves.
Where is the line between self-love and selfishness?
When do we help others – before or after we help ourselves?
I have my truth, and probably you have yours.
Here’s mine.
When I wake up in the morning, I am first with myself. This is how I start my day. I brush my teeth, wash my face, have breakfast, etc. I serve myself first.
It’s a little bit like Maslow’s pyramid.
We are unable to fully help others if we don’t look after ourselves first. You must be healthy to look after your children properly, right? You must eat so you have the energy to move throughout the day. You must love yourself before you start loving the people around you.
You must love yourself before you start loving the people around you.Prioritize yourself and your needs.
Also, make sure your work with your self-awareness and improve it constantly. Self-awareness will help you understand your feelings, find your patterns, and act according to the new information.
Too often we act and take decisions based on what we’re used to doing and not on what we actually should. In order to understand your self-awareness, make sure you check The Art of Self-Awareness.
20. Remove Expectations and Deadlines
We have deadlines for everything.
We have timetables for when to meet someone, until what age we should get married, have children. We expect ourselves to be the best, to be first, to be perfect.
But expectations and deadlines are huge stress factors. They put us in a delicate position that everything, mainly our happiness, depends on something.
Expectations make us rush and ignore the process while striving for the result.
Remove them from your life or at least reduce them to a minimum.
Stop judging yourself for not fitting in with your or the people’s expectations or deadlines. Stop predicting how things should be and start seeing them how they are.
Live every day with zero expectations and let it flow.
None of this means you shouldn’t care about what you do. But it simply says that you let things happen when they suppose to happen at their pace while you do the best you can every day. That’s all.
Recently I read a wonderful book – “The Soulmate Experience” by Mali Apple and Joe Dunn. It’s all about how to remove expectations from ourselves and our loved ones and love each other on a soul level. In it the authors say:
“Any expectation we hold has the potential to produce disappointment, frustration, anger, and resentment.”
Do these emotions sound familiar to you? Are they just results of you having expectations from yourself and life?
Take a moment to think about it and decide if your expectations serve you good.
Is it possible you don’t love yourself because you don’t live up to your (or someone else’s) expectations? Does it sound fair? Or even logical?
Yes, the book I mentioned above is another book I read for free with Kindle Unlimited. Did you sign up for the free trial?
21. You Need To Take Action
It might be a little bit late for this point, but I have to squeeze it in here.
There’s a misunderstanding in the world we live in today.
Talking about expectations, I realized that very often we “expect” things to happen for us.
For example, we buy a book on personal financing and wait for it to change our lives. We go to the doctor’s office ill and wait for him to heal us. However, neither the book we bought will do anything for our financial situation, nor the doctor could heal us by himself.
In the case of the book, you have to follow the steps in it and take control of your money. In the situation with the illness – we must take pills, stay warm, eat healthy food, and constantly look after ourselves.
Implement these two examples in whichever situation comes into your mind. The bottom line is: nothing will happen unless we take action toward it.
Nothing!
You cannot take your exams if you don’t take the time to study for it. You won’t meet the love of your life unless you walk out of the door and meet new people. Nothing in this world happens unless there’s an action involved in it.
Therefore, promise yourself to act.
Self-loving is just another thing in life you should act on. Learning how to love yourself more requires you to dedicate yourself daily to actions that lead you closer and closer to fully accepting and appreciating yourself.
22. Read Inspirational Books
There are hundreds of books out there to help you love yourself more starting today.
This is a shortlist of 5 inspirational books for women that are worth having a look at. I’ve read them all more than twice, and chances are – I will go through them again in the future.
If you are looking for budget-friendly ways to read more books, I use Kindle Unlimited for the last two years, and I’ve already read over 50 books for free there.
They even give you 30 days free trial to check if you’d enjoy the service. Try it today.
Is reading not your thing?
Amazon offers most of its books in audio versions too. I often listen to audiobooks while I cook or clean the house. In this way, I don’t feel like I’m wasting my time not doing work (yes, I’m that bad!). Audible offers the same 30 days free trial if you sign up now.
23. Be Conscious About Inspirational Resources
I found out that if I watch inspirational videos on Youtube for too long (let’s say two days in a row – a few videos per day) instead of feeling pumped up and ready for action, I feel miserable and unable to do anything with my life.
This might not be the case with you, but if it is – reduce the time you spend listening to how great you must become today and you should live your life 100% of the time. You already live your life 100% of the time; the idea is to live it at your own pace and walk your steps.
Be selective of what you allow to enter your life, even if it’s 10 minutes of motivational video.
24. Review Your Existing Habits
Your life is an endless chain of habits.
Everything you do every day of your life, every week or every month is a habit.
In the beginning, you might have resisted certain habits, but after repeating the action several times it becomes easier and easier – it becomes a habit.
Review your habits.
Do everything today with consciousness and evaluate it. Is it a good habit? Does it bring you closer to loving yourself more or does it frustrate you and make you disappointed by yourself?
Develop healthy habits that give you the physical and mental strength to love yourself.
Make a list of 5 or more healthy habits you’d like to implement into your life.
Choose one to start with, track it, and see how it benefits your self-love process. Add another when feeling comfortable with the first one.
25. Try Something New Every Week
Set up a new tradition for yourself – try something new every week.
Sit down and brainstorm several ideas on things you haven’t done before but really want to. Choose the ones you can fit in your normal working schedule and start ticking them off.
New things are scary and exciting. They challenge not only our body but our mind too.
Implementing new things in life will give you a sense of adventure, inspire you to explore yourself more, and will definitely make you love yourself too.
26. Get To Know Yourself More
I know this might sound a little bit worn-out, but you need to know yourself to love yourself. Find out what you like and what you don’t. Ask yourself important questions and search for the answers within you.
Be specific about your dreams and values in life.
What are the things you appreciate the most in life? What makes a difference for you?
Understand what you want to achieve in your work life and your personal life too. Find what you like or dislike in food, in your personal relationships, and in the world.
Do you have any hobbies? If not, would you like to have? What would it be? How would you benefit from it? Are you an introvert or an extrovert? Do your surroundings reflect your inner self? Would you like to change something about it? Keep asking questions you don’t know the answers to.
Get to know yourself.
27. Face The Mirror
People that have negative self-thoughts and low opinions of themselves tend to avoid looking in the mirror. And by looking in the mirror, I don’t mean only when you brush your hair or put face cream on.
I mean looking in your eyes, ignoring the rest of the face.
The eyes are the window to a person’s soul. And we are used to looking into other people’s eyes and trying to get to their souls. How often did you do it with yourself though?
Look in the mirror every single morning and tell yourself how beautiful you are. Say you love yourself. Smile at the reflection and see how it smiles back at you.
Ignore how awkward you might feel at this moment – you are with yourself, there’s nothing to worry about. Are you a little bit shy? I’ve heard some people are scared to look into their own eyes in the mirror. Why? Isn’t this what you do when you love someone? You stare at their faces, try to get into their inner world, look for their soul…
Treat yourself like someone you just met and want to get to know better. Look into your eyes every day and tell the person you see there you love him.
Treat yourself like someone you just met and want to get to know better. Look into your eyes every day and tell the person you see there you love him.28. Admit In Front Of Yourself That You Are a Good Person
As you could see the last three points represent a very personal process of getting to know and accepting yourself just the way you are.
The reason is that if you feel like you don’t love yourself, this means you don’t accept who you are. This vital process takes time and determination, just like everything else in your life.
But there’s one thing you must admit right now: YOU are a good person.
There’s something that is bothering you about yourself and keeps you away from accepting and loving who you are. It’s time to understand that no matter what bothers you, it doesn’t make you a bad person.
29. Start Moving
Exercise.
If you aren’t committed to any regular sport, it’s time to do it.
I practice yoga almost every day. It’s like giving my body long-waited rest of the chair I sit in for hours.
Exercising moves the blood in your body and refreshes your brain, lifts your mood, gives you energy, it’s healthy… Do you really need more reasons to start doing something for yourself?
30. Adopt a Pet
Looking after yourself and loving who you are, could be very hard at times. But do you know what the best way to receive love is? By giving it.
Adopt a pet and see how it loves you no matter what you did today. Animals love us, and they don’t criticize us. They don’t care if we live up to our expectations. They don’t care if we managed to check everything off the to-do list. They love us unconditionally, even if we are away all day and we come home later than usual.
They just love us.
Maybe a puppy will help you start yourself too.
31. Create a List
Can you tell I love lists?
This is an important list. It’s “What Would I Be Able To Achieve If I loved Myself” list.
Write down all of the things you could be able to change in your life if you loved yourself more.
Will you be able to smile more? Will you be able to speak with more confidence? Maybe you would go to that person you have a crush on for the last half-year and finally talk to them?
Do you think loving yourself could change the decisions you make daily? Will you be able to love the people around you more if you had more love for yourself too?
Write down the answers to these questions and keep listing more things you would be able to do if you actually truly loved yourself.
Pin the list on your corkboard or in your bathroom or any place you spend some time daily. Look at it as an encouragement to keep working on your self-love and self-esteem.
32. Keep Your Promises
I know you might keep the promises you give to others, but how often do you keep the promises you give to yourself?
Would you still love and respect someone who constantly changes their plans with you, lets you down, and doesn’t keep their promises? No, you probably wouldn’t. Then, why do you do it to yourself?
If you promised you would start exercising, do it. If you promised to work less next week and sleep more, do it. If you promised to do your best to start loving yourself more, do it!
Keep the promises you give to the most important person in your life – YOU.
33. Create Your Morning Routine
Snoozing the alarm, skipping breakfast and over-speeding on your way to work because you’ll be late (again) isn’t an “I-LOVE-MYSELF” attitude.
Giving yourself enough time in the morning to wake up, take care of your body, wake up your mind, and set a positive mood for the day sounds like a morning routine for someone who loves himself.
Decide which are the three most important things you want to do for yourself every morning before your day start, and build a morning routine that includes them.
For example, my three most important things are breakfast, reading, and journaling in my gratitude journal. My working days include all three of them and doing so gives me peace and prepares me for the day. Don’t you have time?
Go to bed earlier than usual, set up the alarm 30 minutes earlier, skip the snooze button and keep the promises you give to yourself.
34. Show Appreciation
Show appreciation to everything you touch.
John Kehoe – best-selling author of numerous books on the power of the mind, gives this advice on how to attract more money: every time you touch money, and you give money away thank them for their service. In this way, you will create positive energy around them, and this energy will attract more money towards you.
Try the same technique with everything in your life – whatever you interact every day with, give appreciation, realize how it helps you live better, and say “THANK YOU!”
This exercise will raise your vibration and elevate you above the negative self-thoughts. Say thank you to your bed because it gave you its warmth and softness in the night. Say thank you to your car because it gets you to work and back home after that. Appreciate the sun that tickles your face. Appreciate the life you have and say “THANK YOU!”.
35. Laugh More
A great way to start loving yourself more is by having a good time more often.
What is it that makes you smile? Your niece? A good friend? Favorite comedy? Going out with colleagues?
Whatever it is, add more of it to your life.
Laughter is the best free medicine, and I bet it could help you even to love yourself more.
36. Create Your Happy Vision Board
This is not an ordinary vision board representing your goals and mirroring the life you want for yourself in the next 5 to 10 years.
This Happy Vision Board will be a place you will put together the best of what it was until now.
Choose the best of your happy photos – these are the photos you took in your happiest moments, and create a vision board of them. The photos should make you happy the moment you look at them and shouldn’t sparkle anything else but pure bliss in you.
My happy vision board is a small collection of photos my partner and I took on our last holiday. I glued them down to a canvas and hung it in my office. Every time I feel down, I lack motivation, or feel depressed (all these are signs of not loving myself enough at this moment), I look at them and spend a few moments of daydreaming. Then I feel much better and more satisfied with my life.
Try it for yourself.
37. Change Your Diet – Eat Healthier
Did you know that very often our bad mood, negative self-talk and lack of self-appreciation are results of an unhealthy diet?
Junk food is full of added sugar and carbohydrates with little or no fibre.
The first thing your body does is to search for the glucose (sugar) in the food you eat. Therefore your blood sugar increases every time. To coop with the increase of the glucose your pancreas releases insulin to transport the sugar where it’s needed.
This is a completely normal process that happens with every type of food you eat. However, when you increase the number of carbs you take these results in spikes in your blood sugar.
With time these spikes could disrupt the normal reaction of your body and could cause insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes and weight gain. It could also be a reason to suffer from headaches, depression, bloating and puffiness.
38. Find a New Hobby
I know I mentioned it a little bit in a previous point but starting a new hobby is important for your inner self and it deserves its spot on the list.
Starting a new hobby is important for your inner self and it deserves its spot on the list.To reward myself for finishing a huge project at the end of last year I started a new hobby. It’s called junk journaling, and if you don’t know what that is and you are a paper-lover, this might be something you’d like to Google.
This new hobby gave me a new passion for moving through the day, for doing my best, and finishing everything I have to do so I could sit at the end of the day and enjoy some time creating journals. I already gave away a bunch of journals to family members and their happiness made me happy too. I realize I am good at this and I found I had a hidden talent.
What is it that sparkles joy in you? Crafting? A Sport? Hiking? Driving? Find it and dedicate some time to it. It will help you find new things about yourself, I promise.
39. Schedule A Day Of The Week For Yourself
I ask you to do too many things for yourself, huh?
If you are still reading, this is another thing I ask you to create time for.
I use Sundays for this as it’s the last day of the week means preparation for the new one. It includes doing something for the house and myself too. I will clean, cook something more complicated, put a face mask, exfoliate my skin, set up new intentions for the next week, and so on.
As summary, it means to pamper yourself and your home, to create a foundation for a productive, smooth start of the new week.
Some YouTubers even call it GET YOU LIFE TOGETHER day. Here’s an example of what others do:
40. Give Yourself Time
Don’t see this post as another “Be Perfect Starting Today” article.
Give yourself time. As much as needed. Pin this post and read it every day if you have to until you decide to start with something.
Choose one new thing to implement in your life. If you feel inspired add another one. But don’t overwhelm yourself with all of the 40+ ways to start loving yourself more. I didn’t list them for you to try them all today. I did it so you could have more options to choose from.
Doing less is more.
41. Commit Yourself To Do This
Commit yourself to do everything you could to get to the level where you wouldn’t have to wonder if you love yourself or not.
Life is short, and we really don’t have too much time on Earth. Wasting it in self-hate, depression, anxiety, and feelings of loneliness isn’t a good way to spend our days in this world.
Fact: anyway, you are here. Do something for yourself while you are around.
42. Seek Professional Help
None of these ideas on how to love yourself more inspires you?
If you feel you’re reaching the edge, have thoughts of harming yourself, or just cannot find the power to do anything for yourself, seek professional help. There are people trained to find a way to help you. Do not hesitate to seek this help.
Enjoyed this post? If you’d like to keep It for further reference and go through the tips again and again you could purchase the PDF for $5 by clicking here. Thank you for helping a girl out.
Conclusion and What’s Next
Loving yourself isn’t easy, and there aren’t many people who have never doubted if they genuinely love and appreciate themselves. The process of getting your life together and being happy with who you are is long and full of traps.
Just as with everything else in life, see this as a journey towards your inner self. Find out what else is hiding inside of you.
Be inspired to do the best you could for yourself and never underestimate the power of persistence and dedication as they are the true secret to getting where you want to be.
If you enjoyed this post, there’s more to come, so make sure you subscribe to my blog.
Leave a comment below on which idea you would try today or what you already do for yourself. Your comment could inspire someone else and help them find more love for themselves.
This post was featured on Links à la Mode fashion roundup by Independent Fashion Bloggers.
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How To Love yourself – 42 precious tips on showing self-love and self-care
Blogger, dreamer, procrastinator, and lover of everything soul-touching. My mission is to make you laugh, provoke your thoughts, light up your day and inspire you to fall in love with life and yourself.
Katie
Tuesday 26th of October 2021
Such a great list! I really needed to read it this morning.
Rachel
Tuesday 26th of October 2021
Thank you!
B
Thursday 3rd of June 2021
Oh my i dont know how or where to start loving myself.
Rachel
Tuesday 8th of June 2021
One step at a time! You can do it!
The care cave
Tuesday 13th of April 2021
This was a very helpful post! Very calming and encouraging. Thanks for sharing!
Rachel
Thursday 29th of April 2021
Thank you!
Michal B.L.
Friday 25th of December 2020
Self love is so important, but people still neglect themselves. People just forget they also need to develop a relationship with themselves. Or the avoid themselves. My favorite idea is to schedule time with yourself. Spending some valuable and quality time alone is key to loving yourself and being happy. 💜💜
Rachel
Friday 25th of December 2020
You nailed it, Michal!Thank you!
Emily
Saturday 26th of September 2020
I’m not normally a comment leaver but this post really resonated with me and I just had to say THANK YOU! for writing this, I soaked up every word and you will never know how much you have helped me through your words, it was exactly what I needed to read at this moment in my life and I’m just so grateful I stumbled across your post. 💚
Rachel
Tuesday 29th of September 2020
Thank you for your kind words, Emily!