Self-love 

Valentine’s Day is just around the corner and we feel the need to wrap you in a gentle message of kindness: may you give yourself all the love you need. Yes, the love you need, because self-love can’t be earned, expected or postponed. It should simply exist in you, here and now, all the time. 

You may have heard of the term self-compassion, which can be likened to self-love. We suggest that you really ask yourself what self-love is and how you can give it to yourself.  

In today’s Western culture, the emphasis is often on productivity, but also on taking care of others. Taking a moment to prioritize ourselves is not often encouraged in our culture.

While self-love may still seem selfish to some, it seems increasingly essential and even vital to others. What conscious and consistent actions can we take to love ourselves a little more?   

Here are a few tips on how to make your well-being and self-love a priority and bring that caring warmth back inside you!  

What could be better than remembering what we liked to do as children to get back into an activity that’s good for us? Perhaps it’s drawing, playing in nature, singing, playing a musical instrument, practicing a manual activity or a sport… Bringing joy back into our daily lives is essential to give ourselves quality time and practice self-love! 

Learning to listen to our emotions, to allow them to flow without repressing or judging them, takes a little practice and patience. Observing regularly our bodily sensations can give us information about the emotions that are running through us. In this way, this welcome becomes a means of improving our well-being and moving forward. 

Take a few minutes each day to relax, ask yourself how you’re doing, breathe consciously and become aware of your emotions. Take this moment for yourself, and yourself only, in all the gentleness and kindness this experience has to offer! Find some tips on how to start meditating in this article. 

What we eat often reflects what we’re going through and our emotions. This is what Imane Lahlou explains in the article “Food and Self-love”: “Learning to love ourselves also means learning to eat by listening to and respecting our body, our senses and our essence”.  

Making the choice to put yourself first and giving yourself love can also involve working on yourself. It can be a good idea to turn to therapists to improve our physical, mental and emotional health. There are several professionals who can help you on your way to better overall health. Choose someone you can trust to meet your specific needs. 

The power of writing to free ourselves from self-limiting thoughts and other beliefs or anxieties that stagnate in our heads can be really beneficial! Keeping a diary for this practice and giving free rein to our writing can be a way of freeing our mind from its daily ruminations. By doing so, we can create space in the depths of our thoughts and give ourselves a deeper dose of love.  

One last tip for finding love for yourself is to set healthy boundaries. Choosing to set boundaries with those around us, whether professionally or personally, is a courageous and selfless act. Perhaps start with a small, simple action, like saying no to an invitation to take care of yourself. With practice, the more you set your limits with kindness, the prouder you’ll be of yourself and the more confident you’ll be in the next stages of your personal journey! 

And no pressure! Apply these self-love recommendations in a kind and gentle way! Remember to take it one step at a time and, above all, that self-love is a process that can stretch over a lifetime!