Aloha Milky Way babes! I’m sure you’ve heard the buzz word self-love a lot. If not, you’ve come to the right place by stumbling upon 5 Ways to Begin Loving Yourself! *ba dum tss*

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Do you need help with the blastoff of your self-love journey? I’m excited to share with you five ways to begin loving yourself. These methods are five simple ways in which to sprinkle some stellar self-love dust into your orbit!

1. Recognize the need to practice self-love

Identify why you’d like to start practicing self-love. The reasons could be anything from desiring to be more confident, leaving a toxic relationship, or struggling with other issues. Every one of us has a dark side, and that’s okay. Many times, it is through our darkness that we realize just how brightly we can shine. Maybe you’re tired of your cynical attitude, self-sabotaging behavior, or being too loving to others and leaving little love for yourself. Congrats if you realize that you’d like to change for the better and love yourself through the process!

2. Commit to practicing self-love

Self-love is a practice. Think of self-love as a lush garden that needs constant sunshine, weeding, and watering to thrive. The more you practice tending to your self-love garden, the better you’ll become. As you evolve into better versions of yourself, the needs of your self-love garden will change. You must make a serious commitment to loving yourself every single day. *EVERY DAMN DAY!* Some days will be hard. If you feel like you don’t love yourself on those days, all the cells in your body care very much (they’re working hard just for you), as do your loved ones. Self-love is a lifestyle and a daily practice that needs a serious commitment with all strings attached! 

5 Ways to Begin Loving Yourself!

3. Incorporate self-love into your daily life

After you’ve committed to loving yourself, you must incorporate it into your everyday life. The ways in which you can depend on your unique individual needs. We can all practice self-love by getting the proper amount of sleep each night (7-8 hours), eating a well rounded and nutritious diet, and staying adequately hydrated.

Make a vow to end any self-bullying. Your thoughts and mind have power. Use that power for good. Say a good thought to yourself after a bad one. Or, don’t give too much power to bad thoughts as you typically would.

What does incorporating self-love into your life look like? This could require self-exploration. Ask yourself, how can I show myself some love today? Seek the answers. Showing yourself love could mean going for a ten-minute walk every day or finding the strength to leave a bad relationship. Whatever the specification, make it happen! 

4. Be authentically you

“Today you are you, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is youer than you.”

Dr. Suess

To love yourself, be authentically you! Celebrate your originality and don’t worry about anyone else. I realize that’s much easier said than done. Comparing ourselves to other people is as easy as spending too much time on YouTube or Instagram.

However, don’t forget that there is NO ONE ELSE exactly like you on the entire planet. Rejoice in that fact! Let your freak flag fly! There are no official guidelines telling you that you have to be like anyone else.

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Don’t hide your true self out of fear that you won’t be accepted. You don’t want acceptance for an inauthentic presentation of yourself only to face rejection towards the real version. The right people will accept you no matter what. GO BE authentically YOU! 

5. Accept yourself 

Ahhh, self-acceptance. Yeahhhh, baby, yeah! *Austin powers voice* Accept the parts of you that you enjoy flaunting to the world AND the parts you don’t. I’m talking about accepting the good, the bad, and the ugly here space cowgirls and cowboys.

We’ve all made mistakes, and have character flaws. Truly forgive yourself for past mistakes. What’s gained from constant guilt-trips? It may take some time to forgive yourself, and that’s okay. Listen to the song Please Forgive Me by Bryan Adams. Perhaps that will help. If you’re not a Bryan Adams fan, maybe serenade yourself by singing, “I love you. I’m sorry. Please forgive me. Thank you.” If you’re thinking okay, I’m not doing either one of those suggestions. I’d say, okay, don’t forgive yourself and be miserable. Just kidding. Take that crap out to the garbage alongside that duck sauce from last month!!!

As for your flaws, the good news is that if you put in work, you can improve upon them. It’s up to you! There’s always room for self-improvement, and that’s a beautiful thing.

It’s easy to accept the parts of yourself that you and other people admire. Working your way through the murky waters of your mistakes and character flaws is a courageous act of self-love. Reflect on areas of improvement as a rewarding path to morph into a better version of yourself.

If you have mental or physical ailments, be gentle with yourself. Please don’t beat yourself up. You deserve SO MUCH MORE than that! Treat yourself the way you’d treat someone you adore. Your mistakes, character flaws, mental and physical ailments don’t make you any less of a gorgeous celestial being with traces of the heavens inside. Accept yourself for all that you are!

I hope these five ways to begin loving yourself are helpful to you on your galactic self-love travels! Your mind, body, and soul are counting on you to begin and to stay loving yourself. The universe supports you in your self-love travels. I support you too! We can do it!

Self-love is challenging but IT’S SO WORTH IT! YOU ARE WORTH IT! Go expose all the stardust within you! And may you always light up the darkness! 

XoXo, Mandy