How to love yourself

You don’t need to like yourself in order to love yourself.

Self-love doesn’t mean you have to like who you are, how you’re acting, or what you’re doing all the time. Self love is the act of being present and attentive with yourself no matter what and being completely radically honest with how you’re feeling. And then being accepting of your honesty.

The parts of ourselves we don’t like, are ashamed of, we wish to ignore are like a crying child asking for comfort. We should treat that emotion for ourselves like a parent would for a child.

Here are two ways to start loving yourself:

Speak to yourself with compassion. If you made a mistake, say it’s ok. It was a mistake. I wasn’t trying to screw up.I was trying my best. I’ve learned something new today for tomorrow.

Listen to what your physical body is saying to you. your body is always sending you important messages. How do you feel right now? Anxious? Quaint? Irritated? Tired? Hopeful? That is your body checking in with your mind. When you understand what your body is telling you, you will then know how to correct the negative feelings and enhance the positive.

*Adapted from Liz DiAlto’s Untamed Self Love

Yuki Molteni26 February 2021