As women, we often put all of our love into those around us and forget to reserve some of that amazing juice for ourselves. It’s so important to show ourselves love in order to feel valued and whole. Use these awesome self-love tips to start to show yourself more love on the regular.
By the way, love isn’t one of those things that will get used up. Actually, the more you love the more love you have to give. So love as much and as often as you can and remember to reserve some for yourself!
You’re amazing and incredibly deserving of love from yourself and those around you.
Use These Self Love Tips To Improve Your Gut & Overall Health
As a gut health and wellness coach, my focus is on improving gut health. You might be surprised at how many things affect your gut microbiome and digestive system and how much the gut affects your overall health.
And, you guessed it! Your ability to love and accept ourselves fully reduces major stress in our lives, which is huge offender to your gut.
When you learn to accept who you are and where you are on our journey (because you’re exactly where you’re meant to be!), you can learn to honor yourself and grow exponentially from this place.
This love and acceptance can help you to listen to what you need and desire in each moment. When you listen, you’ll grow clear. And when you have clarity, you’ll be WAY less stressed. You’ll know that you’re on the right path and trust your decisions because you’re able to trust your inner wisdom.
Good nutrition and lifestyle choices including reducing stress in your life are the best general recipe for gut and overall healing. So anything you can do to become aware of what you need and take action towards that will help to boost your health overall.
Simply showing more love to the most consistent, present, trusted, and dependable person in your life (YOU!) is a great place to start!
Self Love Tips
There are so many ways to be compassionate and show love to yourself. So choose something that sounds wonderful or that you know you really need right now. Here are a few self-love tips and ideas to get your creativity flowing.
Do something nice for yourself
So many of us don’t take enough time for ourselves. Well now is the time to stop and do that! I invite you to find something that sounds relaxing or fun and schedule it in sometime this week. It doesn’t have to take a lot of time to be meaningful, and the possibilities are endless.
- Take yourself out for a cup of tea or a nice glass of wine
- Read something you enjoy
- Schedule in time to reflect
- Set up a massage or bodywork appointment
- Take an Epsom salt and essential oil bath. Put a few drops of your favorite essential oils on the salts before putting them in the bath. Bergamot is my favorite and can encourage self-love.
- Build-in time to go for a walk
- Buy yourself flowers, chocolate, or a gift and wrap it or find a way to “give” it to yourself
- Write yourself a love note
- Go to a class you’ve been interested in
- Read or watch something inspirational
- Celebrate a recent success, no matter how big or small
Give yourself permission
Sometimes we simply just need to give ourselves permission to relax, slow down, take a break, talk nicely to ourselves, adopt a mindset of worthiness, accept that you deserve to be valued, allow yourself to let go of something you are hanging onto, begin to forgive yourself, or any other permission you may need. This simple yet sometimes challenging practice can open the doorway for a cascade of positive changes in your life.
Journal about yourself
Write about everything you like about yourself from the most obvious to the most inconspicuous things. This can include things physically that you appreciate about your body, what your body allows you to do, how you treat others, how you show up in the world, your mentality or perspective towards life, or whatever else it is that you are grateful for or appreciate about yourself and your life.
Positive Affirmations
Imagine or visualize what you want to think of yourself or the direction you would like to go in your life or with your mindset. Repeat an affirmation about how wonderful you are or a new mindset that you’re trying to adopt, and say it with confidence as if it’s already true.
You can increase the benefit by stimulating the mirror neurons in your brain by looking in the mirror to say your affirmations.
Tip: Leave out the word “not” since our subconscious brain won’t register this easily. This will also encourage positive affirmations or adding something good in rather than focusing on something we don’t want.
Here are a few examples, but be sure to find something that resonates with you and practice in a way that feels authentic. This may be slightly uncomfortable at first if you’re not familiar with using affirmations, but it’ll become more natural over time.
“I love and accept myself”
“I deserve love from myself and others”
“I deserve my own appreciation”
“I choose to focus on the positive aspects of my life”
Let Loose, Guilt-Free!
Allow yourself to splurge, take time for yourself, and enjoy life guilt-free! I like to follow an 80/ 20 rule and maybe your percentage is different. 80% of the time, I aim to eat well, move my body, and do the healthy things that nourish my mind, body, and soul. 20% of the time, let loose and enjoy food or drinks in good company. Follow your instincts and do what you intuitively know is the healthiest balance for you.
I believe it’s important to let go and splurge at times in order to nourish your soul in a different way and not feel restricted in your healthy choices. When you choose to do this, allow yourself to do it without ANY guilt or shame. If you’re feeling guilty as you’re eating your favorite dessert, enjoying a drink, or watching your most recent Netflix binge, it takes away from how much you will enjoy that activity.
In addition, guilt and shame both place a heavy burden and a lot of stress on our mind and body, and in themselves are extremely unhealthy. Giving yourself this freedom will likely help you stay on track better the rest of the time. So give yourself a break, let loose, and have fun!
Get Started
I hope some of these self-love tips resonate with you, but you can also brainstorm other things you can do to show more love to yourself. It doesn’t matter how you do it, just that you do.
So let’s get started! I invite you to grab a pen and piece of paper or your journal and write down what you’re going to do to be kinder, more compassionate, and loving to yourself. Next, schedule it in your calendar. When something is actually in your calendar, you’re much more likely to do it. The sky is the limit, let your creativity go wild and have fun.
I Love You!
P.S. Here’s a healthy, raw chocolate recipe that you might be interested in. Something about chocolate that’s so nourishing…
