Why Self-Love is The Most Important Thing You Can Do For Yourself.

#selflove is a constant hashtag used on social media, often accompanied by pictures of spa days, bubble baths, candles, or a duvet day with chocolate.

However, they are all forms of self-care, and while they are all brilliant ways to wind down mentally and physically, they are extremely surface level, and not actually self-love. Deep, authentic self-love takes on many different forms, and it affects us is so many ways.

But firstly, we need to understand all the ways that self-love positively impacts our lives.

Self-love can be defined as a state of appreciation for oneself that is a product of our actions, and support for our physical, mental and spiritual well-being. It means that we need to take care of our own needs before others, the old adage of not pouring from an empty cup.

As women, we often take on many different roles in our lives, we have our careers, we may be caregivers, partners and more. These roles require us to give our all, and its often at the detriment of our own well-being. We can only function like that for so long before we hit overwhelm and burnout.

That’s how our lives are without prioritising self-love.

For many women, they haven’t realised that in order to do all of that without suffering burnout, they need to prioritise self-love, but they don’t know where they can possibly fit it into their already busy lives.?

The first step comes from understanding that implementing self-love transform all areas of your life;

Professional: Once you introduce self-love into your life, you’ll gain a higher sense of self-worth and understand that you are good enough. Not only good-enough, but the ever-imposing imposter syndrome that has been holding you back begins to get quieter as your confidence grows. Self-love puts you back in control, and this feeling alone is better for your mental well-being, it creates more motivation and determination. That’s all without mentioning that self-love simply makes you happier and healthier, meaning the stressed and overworked persona is a thing of the past.

Personal: Taking the time to bring self-love into your life will overhaul your wellbeing and transform your relationships. Once your own needs are met you will find that your mental and emotional capacity is much greater. This fuels your connection to your loved ones because you are naturally happier, more open, and present in the moments.

Ways to show yourself love:

- You matter, support your own wants and needs by setting boundaries.

- Start journaling and become in tune with your own thoughts and feelings.

- Practise genuine self-care habits.

- Be self-compassionate

- Address the inner critic and replace it with more intentional, accurate thoughts.

- Do one thing for your total wellbeing each day; meditate, go for a walk, read a book.

Once you begin to implement self-love the results are hard to argue to with. Investing in yourself in this way is the ultimate act of self-love, the beginning of prioritising your own needs, in order to meet the needs and expectations of you elsewhere, without compromising your own well-being.