As cliché as it may sound, loving yourself first will always have a positive domino effect in your life. As often as we hear it, as easy as we say this phrase, it is the opposite of doing it.
How do we love ourselves first? But, then, what does it do to our mental health?
How to show love to ourselves?
- Always give yourself time, time to be pampered and spoiled.
- Treat yourself as a gem, so value it and always know your worth as a person who needs to be treated well and respected simultaneously.
- Learn to be happy by yourself, so you will not depend on others for your happiness.
- When your body needs its rest, give it.
- Keep feeding yourself positive thoughts that will reflect on you. Do not put yourself down. Instead, uplift your spirit at all times – one compliment for yourself a day will bring a positive aura to your life.
How does it affect our mental health?
- By loving ourselves, we end up comparing ourselves to others because we know our value and worth as individuals, and we also acknowledge our strengths that others do not have.
- It is not easy to embrace all our flaws. Still, as we learn to embrace them and accompany them by loving ourselves, we gain more confidence and belief in our capabilities, and sooner, our self-confidence is fully built.
- Failures and wrong decisions are a big part of our learning as an individual, but as we go through this adventure, we must understand that it is something that we need to go through and learn from our mistakes. As we learn from our mistakes, we must also learn not to be so hard on ourselves and beat it up.
- Accepting our failures and mistakes makes us more confident in trying and learning simultaneously.
- We teach others how to treat us; if they see how much love and respect we are giving to ourselves, it will be reciprocated.
- On the other hand, when we love ourselves, we put boundaries and standards on which relationship we must continue to deal with; at this rate, we prevent ourselves from being involved in a toxic kind of relationship and only allow the healthy relationship to be maintained and stay in our lives.
Loving yourself is a crucial part of healthy and good mental health. Being healthy does not end on taking care of physical appearance but more on how you take care of your mental health.
Always remember that loving yourself is not selfish; it simply means you know how to give yourself the love, respect, and needs it has to receive. It is more than acknowledging what our body wants but what we need for us to grow. We should learn to love ourselves first before we start to love others.
Dina Relojo is the social media manager of Psychreg. She is a high school teacher from the Philippines.
