I Only use Information That I Have Personal Experience With
How to Learn to Love Yourself
I feel it is so very important to know how to learn to love yourself, so, I hope this post will help you along that journey.
Another week has gone past, thus another week of research and learning. Although I only use material that I have experience with, in my own life, I need to do research. This is to help me put everything into perspective and to give my blogs an easy flow. It helps my readers, to keep track of where I’m coming from and to where I’m headed. I try to keep track of the common themes that keep coming up in my life. In the way of; books, blogs I come across, and any statistics that apply to the themes.
Common Themes
Some of the common themes in the area of how to learn to love yourself are common. However, not necessarily in this order;
- Get to know yourself.
- Treat yourself like someone you really love, for example, your best friend.
- Figure out how you feel within yourself. For instance, how do your body and mind react to outer experiences?
- Be with people who truly care about you. For example, someone who loves you would never put you in danger or ask you to do things you just don’t want to do.
- Create borders.
- Stop comparing yourself to others.
- Take care of your health (body, mind and spirit ).
- Ask for help when you need it.
- Forgive yourself. This seems to be the most difficult challenge for most people.
- Be kind to yourself.
- Be honest with yourself.
- Know your strengths.
There are obviously many others you can employ in your journey. However, these really stood out for me, as I have struggled with all of them along the way.
Where to Begin
You begin by figuring out what love means to you. The easiest way is to bring to mind the people you love the most in your life. You begin to look at how you treat those people. And, once you have thoroughly examined what those things are, you begin to treat yourself the same way. It may be harder than it seems, I still struggle with this, but it’s doable.
I’m willing to bet you treat others, even those you don’t love, much better than you treat yourself. This seems to be a common thread throughout the planet. The strange thing is, you truly cannot love others without first loving yourself. For me, this meant, I couldn’t give love to others until I experience love for myself. The love I was giving was real, but not at full capacity, I couldn’t give what I didn’t have.
It’s a bit complicated until you experience this for yourself. You will never understand how yummy chocolate is simply by others telling you about it. You will only know when you experience, and taste it yourself. You have know how to learn to love yourself.
How do you Treat Those you Love?
I try to do these things as much as possible, but it isn’t always easy. Sometimes it seems impossible, but it isn’t. It’s a bit difficult to get started. However, you can try to;
- Use respect
- Be kinder
- Show more love
- Give more hugs
- Make time for people
- Help out when it’s needed
- Be honest with people
- Compliment more
- Forgive people more
- Give advice when it’s asked for
- Have fun and laugh with others more
This is just a short list of the things you probably already do for the people you love. So, now you need to learn how to love yourself. You can create a new list of your own. Ask yourself how you would want others to treat you. Now, that would be a great start.
My Point
My point is; if you don’t already love yourself as you should, you need to begin the process. Try by figuring out what you already know about love. And how you personally treat those that make your world a better place to live in. How are they doing that for you, now do those things for yourself? You begin with little steps. Make a list of how you show love to others and how you want to be treated. Also, when you treat yourself the way you want to be treated, others will do the same for you. When you love yourself, you will never allow another person to treat you with respect than you know you deserve.
What you can do Today
Ask your best friend why they like being around you. Another thing you can do for a week, is to choose something from the themes list, and do it for yourself, just do it! If not for a week, then one day. Or choose one moment during the day and look in the mirror and compliment that person looking back at you. You deserve it, you are important, you have a purpose, you deserve to be loved. Therefore, begin to know how to learn to love yourself.
Link to: Self-Love Part 1