A complete guide for self-love
To get to know yourself is a long process, but a necessary one. It is the path you have to take if you want to achieve more compassion and a better relationship with yourself and others.
Sadly, self-love is not taught often, but it must be a priority if we want to boost our confidence and independence on the everyday life.
I will share you my secrets to self-love. Many of them achieved with a consistent yoga practice, sports that need mindfulness and awareness and of course traveling.
Start by the easy things, SLEEP, are you sleeping enough for your daily routine? Do you go to bed with your phone?
Sleep is one of the things that affect our day constantly. Not having a good night sleep may bring us stress and concentration problems on a daily basis. These affect our awareness and mindfulness, so basically the way we do things. Try to go to bed without your phone and have a nice ritual to go to bed. It can be something like getting on your pj’s, clean your face, make a meditation in bed and SLEEP. Just try to find what fits you best :)
Do you have a daily routine? are you doing enough for your body? Your body is your temple. Because we are visual individuals, if you don’t like what you see there, you can’t love it. Pamper yourself, treat yourself as the precious human being you are. Maybe use a nice body lotion to be thankful to your body daily, or use a nice soap to wash it. The idea is to appreciate your body in some way. The more appreciation and respect you have for it, the more care you will have. I give a hug to myself in the morning to show affection, maybe you could start with that too?
Yoga is a part of my daily routine because it helps me understand of how much my body is capable of, it makes me also concentrate on myself the hole duration of my practice. It helps me to surrender to what my body is capable of and to release the boundaries our mind has put on. I like to think of my Yoga practice as the moment I have to be in contact with my physical me, it becomes like a therapy. Some positions require more concentration than others but the feelings that arise in each one of them make me have a deeper connection with myself, and to understand it. Also remember the way you treat yourself on the mat is the way you are in life, so how are you in the mat? are you being patient to yourself? *Try not to compare yourself to others, every one has their own journey and EVERY body is different. It is a different temple.
AWARENESS During the day I try to be aware of the way I am moving around, where do I walk, the things I see. No matter if you are in a new place or in the city you live. Look at your surroundings, try to observe what is happening around you. Be aware of what are you doing and the thoughts you are having. The everyday life is filled with stress, dead-lines and many more things that we have to take care of. Awareness is key to stay calm. Even the simple things require certain level of awareness. Start by enjoying your breakfast, do you taste all the flavors ? what do you feel ?
SURF, you know I love to surf. Besides the feeling of sliding on the water and the hole experience of being in touch with nature, it makes me mindful of what I am doing. In such a sport, being distracted can mean that the current takes you away or that you end in the impact zone (where the waves crash). You have to be 100 % present in what you are doing in the water. It is only about you and the water. Surfing a wave gives you the confidence boost you need to perform better during your day, or it shows you the new abilities you are capable of ;)
How can you achieve self-love while you TRAVEL? Well when we travel there is certain expectation of how the place should be and what do we want to experience. But is also another way to do what we deep in our soul want. We are out of our daily life, in an unknown environment with people that we don’t know. So it is easier to say NO to what we don’t like or want. Is the perfect time to do what you deeply desire to do, to respect and honor your temple. So grab the opportunity, go to a place you have never been (it maybe the street on the other side of town, who knows) and do whatever you feel like, connect to yourself and listen to what you really want.
PLAN your day, make a realistic list of things you have to accomplish daily. This will not only help you to do things in a better way, but it will give you a great reward as you finish them. All these positive feelings make your hole energy to shine brighter. The key is to have small tasks to achieve more, to have a better overview of where are you going and where are you at.
At the end of the day, self-love is involve in everything we do. It helps us realize who we are and of how much we are capable of. It makes us humble as we know about the things that we need to learn and be better at. It makes us kind, because we understand that everyone is having a different journey. Try to make the first step, I will on my side try to inspire you with my passions to make you love yourself a bit more <3 Don’t forget to follow me on Facebook and Instagram