Stepping into the new year can cause anxiety for many, with New Year’s resolutions and uncertainty of what the new year will bring. Therefore, here is the key to self-love – something which everyone should practice this year.
First of all, you need to accept yourself for who you are. You can do this by writing down everything that you think of when you think of yourself, or write down three words that describe you. This can help with getting to know yourself and also accepting yourself, even your flaws. It is important to accept yourself while on the path to loving yourself.
Patience is something that you need to be mindful of on your way to self-love. Sometimes loving yourself can be very hard, so you have to accept that it may take some time which can be filled with self-care and ‘you’ time. This is an important thing to remember as everything takes time. So don’t be upset with yourself if self-love takes some time, just stick with it.
Take a day off if you need; if you don’t feel great, don’t push yourself. Take some time off and practise self-care, take time to do the things that you love. Sometimes you need to take time for yourself and ensure that you don’t burn out.
Something else you can do which will help in the long run of self-care and self-love is to plan ahead, schedule time that you’re going to do work and leave time to do the things you love. Otherwise, you could create a stressful environment. Therefore, planning ahead and being organised can help. Something else to help you could be creating a weekly diary or journal to ensure a timetable that suits you.
Planning a sleep schedule, some meal planning, mood trackers and habit trackers can help you in your daily life to get to know yourself and keep yourself happy and healthy, this might be for you, to keep track of your life.
It is very important to treat yourself, which will make you feel loved. Finding your love language can also lead you on a path to self-love and self-discovery as you will be learning something important to do with how you feel loved.
Meditation and sensory awareness can help with self-help, which leads to self-love, as we are linked to our senses. Perhaps creating a box with something for each sense could help you, for example;
- Scent- your favourite scented candle, or soap
- Touch- something soft or something you like the texture of
- Taste – your favourite snack or tea
- Sound – noise-cancelling headphones to listen to your favourite song
- Sight – something colourful, or photos that make you happy
All of the items above should be linked to happiness in the senses box.
Overall, you need to leave some time at the end of your day to practice self-care and get to know little things about yourself, this will lead you to self-love.