3 Simple Ways I Practice Self-Love and Boost my Confidence

To me, self-love is accepting myself as I am, showing myself kindness, and taking care of myself. When I am doing these things, I feel better overall and have more self-confidence than times when I am hard on myself or neglect myself. Another reason self-love is important to me is it sets an example to my son, A, that there is nothing wrong with prioritizing ourselves or being happy with who we are. And it does not do anyone else any favors in the long run if we don't treat ourselves well. After all, it can make it harder for others to love us if we don't love ourselves.

Listening to my Body

A great way I show myself love is by listening to my body. If we pay attention to our bodies, we can learn a lot about what they need from us. If we ignore what is being communicated to us, we may be neglecting ourselves. For example, when I pay attention to what my body is telling me, I am able to know when I need to eat something nutritional, when I need to sleep, when I need to do some exercise, when I need to take a break from homework, when I need to reduce my screentime, when to eat, when to stop eating, and when I need to wake up for the day. If I ignore these signals from my body, I feel physically crappy and, psychologically, I feel bad about myself. I have learned that my body knows what I need best so I just need to trust it.

Not Comparing Myself to Others on Social Media

People tend to post the best parts of their lives on social media. Not only that, but they tend to make them seem even better than they actually are. For example, people pose at their best angle for pictures, edit them to how they like, remove what they don't want to show in the backgroumd, take pictures only when they are looking their best (hair done, makeup done, dressed, etc.), and often when they are doing something fun. Do people only do fun things? Do people always look like they are ready for a photo shoot? Absolutely not. Realistically, I know that some of these people who look like they are going out all the time, vacationing often, and seem to always be around a group of people have their own struggles they are going through, have things they dislike about themselves, and likely aren't as happy as they pretend to look in those pictures. When I see others on social media who look like they have everything going for them, I look at my own life and remind myself of what I have that is real. I have a loving family, a home, I'm progressing towards a career, we have no debt other than our mortgage, and we have everything we need. I remind myself of these things, not because I think I have things better than those on social media, but so I remember that just because I hangout in my pajamas all day and my house isn't always tidied, doesn't mean that there is something wrong with me. And when I do see people post something positive about what is going on in their lives, I have a moment where I feel happy for them, and then I move on.

Communicating With Myself in Kind and Positive Ways

I have learned the power of talking kindly to myself. When I think kind, encouraging thoughts to myself, I have higher self-esteem and am able to accomplish more than I would have thought. For example, when I am on a run and I am feeling worn out, I think things to myself like "I have, I can, and I will" or "I am energize" or "I'm doing great." It may sound stupid but it really works. In the past when my thoughts used to be "I can't do this" or "I'm so tired," the run used to feel a lot more difficult and I would eventually convince myself to give up. When I think postive thoughts, I feel happy and like I can do anything. I use this way of thinking in everything I do. Before, I (and anyone who knew me) would have considered myself a pessimist. Something was always wrong and I often felt miserable. By thinking kindly to myself, I would say my thinking has made a significant shift towards optimism and I have much higher self-esteem.