How To Practice Self-Love During Quarantine
As we have spent most of the year either sitting in isolation alone, in our relationships or with our families, we have been forced to dive into a world of thought most of us have never been forced into before. Our deepest feelings, whether they be happy, sad, hurtful, challenging, upsetting, frustrating or painful, has been brought to the surface of our lives, allowing us to face everything within us that needs to be faced and, realistically, giving us the existential crisis we never saw coming.
At this point in the year, it doesn't seem to matter what age we are at or what point in our lives we are in, we are accepting these times to do the inner work and to be shown by the universe what in our lives needs to be altered or fixed, what needs to be thrown out of our bodies and minds or what parts of ourselves we should be focusing on more.
Self-love has been a phrase that continuously pops up in our lives but can be considered something much less than what it truly is. As we glorify it for representing moments in the bath with a face mask or glass of wine, there is a deeper meaning and deeper thinking that that can be found in finding the ways in which you need to show yourself self-love.
For most of us, what we desire to achieve from self-love can look quite similar.
• Acceptance of Our Flaws, Talents and Where We Are In Life.
As a society who diminishes us for any flaws, a form of self-love is accepting them. A difficult and challenging concept to get our head around, but one that can bring so much fulfillment and peace within us. What fits perfectly into this is once we are capable of accepting our own flaws, we tend to accept the flaws of others. On the same note, when we accept our own gifts or talents that we have without fear, we can also accept these of others and even be encouraging of them. No matter where we are in our lives, where others are or where we wish to be. With setting ego aside we can find peace within our own goals and accomplishments and the acceptance of others.
• Showing Consideration and Respect.
We often crave consideration and respect from others, but it starts with not only showing others these same qualities but showing ourselves too. When we consider and respect ourselves, we put our needs in front of others, not selfishly, but with good merit. We respect our own boundaries and show self-love by holding people to theirs.
• The Balance of Giving and Receiving
For some of us, we are givers. We feel the want and need to keep others happy, safe and content, even if that means taking it out of ourselves. A harmful path to go down, but sometimes one unseen until exhaustion sets in and we find ourselves left behind. It can be a vicious cycle of giving and not receiving. When we focus on offering our energy to those who not only recognize they are receiving it but do their best to return the energy to refuel us, we are creating a balance. This, of course, goes the other way too. Self-love is taking this understanding and doing our best to determine who deserves our energy and maintaining a balance in both giving and receiving.
• Understanding, Acknowledging, Complimenting and Being an Unconditional Human.
Understanding, acknowledging and complimenting ourselves and doing our best to show these qualities to others. Giving, loving, encouraging and helping ourselves unconditionally and doing the same to others. When we are successful in showing ourselves these important mindful practices, we create a bounce-back effect from the world around us. While we often focus on self-love for ourselves, the understanding of the mirror effect can totally transform our worlds.
Our surroundings will become a mirror to ourselves and those we treat with the same self-love we cover ourselves in. It will come back to us tenfold.
When it comes to self-love, there are many points to focus on depending on what you need to work on for yourself. We have to learn to trust our intuition and thinking, look out for our own needs, protecting the peace and boundaries we have set, prioritizing ourselves over any situation, and validating our thoughts, feelings and emotions along the way. It's an extensive list and one that may vary depending on what you are looking for, but it all comes down to one thing. Practicing self-love will open a new door you never knew existed and one that can bring you the peace you've always sought.