How To Love Yourself And Improve Your Mental Health?
Key takeaways
- Self-love often involves having care and compassion for yourself, the way you would for a friend.
- Online therapy can help you cultivate habits that foster self-love.
You can learn to love yourself through a variety of self-care practices that affect your physical, emotional, and mental health. When you feel self-love, it also helps you set healthy boundaries, potentially strengthening your relationship with yourself and others.
What is the concept of self-love?
Self-love is holding yourself in high regard, like you might with others you care about. It involves positive feelings about yourself, being compassionate with yourself, as well as taking care of yourself physically, emotionally, mentally, and in relationships.
How to love yourself?
What are ways to practice self-love?
An important part of practicing self-love and compassion is by engaging in self-care. There are many aspects of life in which you can care for yourself and cultivate self-love.
Self-affirmations versus negative thoughts
One way to practice self-love and self-acceptance is by engaging in self-affirmations, which involves reminding yourself of your worth by reflecting on your strengths and positive attributes.
This can improve your self-esteem and may have the added benefit of combating negative self-talk and self-doubt.
Boundary setting to practice self-love
Setting boundaries can be a way of demonstrating self-respect, and others might also respect you more if you are proactive about establishing expectations.
How to love yourself through daily practices
Daily self-care practices could also help with self-love. Taking time for yourself demonstrates that you are caring for yourself and can help to rewire your thinking. Daily meditation can help bring you into the present moment, which may make you feel more grounded and connected to yourself.
Even taking a few moments to breathe can help you feel calmer and gain clarity. Journaling, spending time in nature, eating nutritious foods, exercising, and sleeping well are also considered nurturing daily practices. Practicing self-compassion, allowing yourself to be human, and showing yourself the same kindness that you’d show others could also be helpful.
How does self-love promote healthy relationships?
If you experience self-love, you could be more likely to enter relationships in which your partner respects you and reciprocates love in the way that you deserve.
Healthy boundaries for feeling loved
With self-love, you know what you want and deserve in a relationship. Self-love can allow you to set boundaries with others regarding how you want to be treated. Ultimately, this may encourage you to engage in healthier relationships.
How does loving yourself impact mental health?
When you feel self-love, you might be more likely to engage in positive self-talk and make healthy, positive choices in your life. In turn, this can improve your mental health. Self-love can also foster emotional resilience, giving you an inner sense of your essential worth and the capacity to face obstacles.
How to deal with negative thoughts and negative self-talk?
To combat negative thoughts, it could be helpful to recognize when such thoughts arise. In the moment that they arise, you can acknowledge that it’s just a thought and not the truth. Then, you can replace the negative thought with a positive one. Over time, this practice can help rewire your brain.
Is it helpful to attend therapy for feeling more self-love?
If you’ve experienced life challenges or mental health issues, including issues with self-love, therapy can be an important part of healing.
How it works
Tell us about your goals and preferences so we can find a great fit.
Start together or switch to individual support at any time.
Message anytime and schedule live sessions when it works for you.
Individual therapy for mental health support
Seeking professional support in the form of individual therapy can be helpful for your self-love journey. Someone who experiences challenges with self-love may experience a lot of self-doubt. A therapist can help you to pay attention to your inner dialogue and recognize negative thought patterns and negative self-talk.
Not only that, but they can help you challenge these internal patterns, including the messages you get from your inner critic. This may enable you to reprogram your self-image and help you to feel confident. Getting out of your own head can help you take control of your own life and improve your mental health and overall well-being.
The effectiveness of online therapy for negative self-talk
Online therapy may also provide a more comfortable setting for people who are experiencing self-doubt or challenges with self-esteem. You can meet with your therapist from your own home, which might make it easier to open up about your feelings.
Find the right therapist for your relationship.
Would you like to begin therapy as a couple?
Takeaway
Why do I struggle with loving myself?
There could be many different reasons people find it hard to love themselves. For example, some people have inner critics or low self-worth arising from childhood trauma or other negative experiences. Others may have body image issues or perfectionistic personalities. When you realize the source of the problem, you can make a choice to walk a different path.
How to train your brain to love yourself?
There are many strategies people use to train their brains to embrace self-love. For example, you can challenge your own thoughts when they’re self-critical, fear-based, or cause suffering. You can also practice the ability to forgive yourself by reminding yourself that everyone makes mistakes.
How to activate self-love?
One way to activate self-love is through self-care. Eating balanced meals, exercising regularly, and practicing good sleep hygiene could be a step in the right direction. In the same way, people who write in a journal on a regular basis often experience more self-discovery and thus, more love and compassion for themselves.
Is not loving yourself a mental illness?
A lack of self-love isn’t a mental illness itself, but it could be a symptom of a condition such as depression or anxiety. It can also contribute to the development of certain mental disorders such as eating disorders or substance use disorder.
What is the difference between self-love and narcissism?
People with a healthy amount of self-love make it a point to accept responsibility for their actions and behaviors as a matter of self-respect. This is something that people with narcissistic personality disorder may find particularly challenging. Moreover, individuals with NPD have low self-worth but may overcompensate to appear confident.
How does self-love affect mental health?
Self-love has the power to significantly improve mental health. When you accept your whole self as the person you are and practice self-talk that boosts your self-esteem, you may become more resilient and experience less stress and anxiety.
- Previous Article
- Next Article