How to learn to love yourself

Hi guys! hope everyone has had a great summer! It’s sadly coming to an end but I hope you all enjoyed yourselves! I got some excited news last week! As of the 9th of September I will be a digital marketing apprentice for BW Marketing and earning a level 3 qualification in junior content producing at the Juice academy. 

I worked really hard and I’m so glad that I was recognised and it all paid off. Sorry I thought I would share that seen as though last month I had no idea what was happening in my life lol but back to the blog post!

So self-love, body positivity we see it all over social media and it’s a growing agenda and there are more ‘influencers’ on social media promoting it and that’s great I’m really glad that there is increased attention to the matter because not everyone is stick thin with perfect skin and that’s ok!

But what sometimes can be an issue is we don’t know how to get rid of these agonisingly miserable thoughts in our heads that points out all our flaws when we look in the mirror. 

As much as we want to love what we see it just doesn’t work out like that for some of us and that’s why I wanted to write this blog post in order to help those of you who still don’t see your self-worth and thus struggle with self-love. 

Now I’m not an expert in self-love whatsoever but these are a few things I have learnt so far:

Stop hating/criticising yourself

The main aspect that you need to understand about self-love is that it takes time to learn to love yourself it’s not going to happen overnight so this requires patience. Stop this habit of self-hate; when you look in the mirror don’t criticise yourself and examine your ‘flaws’ because guess what? Everyone has them and our ‘flaws’ are what makes us unique and our own person.

Instead of focusing on how ‘big your thighs are’ try to  complement yourself instead, for instance;  ‘my hair looks great today’ or ‘I love my eyes’ and don’t brush off other people’s complements either but instead recognise them and embrace them! 

Basically stop hating yourself and instead try to find the things you love about yourself, and for the love of god throw out those weighing scales because that helps nothing and most of them aren’t accurate anyway so save your money! 

Think and talk about yourself with love, it’s the only way and over time your confidence will soon grow and being positive about yourself will soon become a habit.

The whole mirror situation

Now we all look in the mirror at ourselves every day, it’s just a normal thing to do! But the dangerous thing about a mirror is your negative and self-hating thoughts about yourself that are reflected back at you when you do stare at yourself in the mirror. 

Sometimes you go about your day feeling fine and then all of a sudden you pass a mirror and think ‘why do I look so terrible’ and your whole mood is ruined, I know the feeling I have been there myself…

Now it may sound silly but next time you’re sat in front of a mirror repeat ‘I love you’ over and over every day, it has actually proven to diminish those negative thoughts in your head about yourself and is best known as the ‘law of attraction’. This means what you say and do will come back to you, in other words what energy you give out whether its positive or negative will foreshadow later on sounds like karma but it’s different I’m telling you!

An alternative if you feel silly talking to yourself is to write positive messages on a post it note and stick it on the mirror and then next time you look in the mirror you will be surrounded by your own positivity. May as well give it a try!

Don’t compare yourself to others

I cannot stress this one enough as this is one that used to really affect me when it came to stopping me from accepting my image and loving myself.

What you see on social media, the internet, magazines, and movies is not real! Everything is either photo shopped, face tuned or airbrushed. Everything is filtered these days even if you can’t tell so there is no point getting upset at the fact you don’t have their flawless skin or body because 99% of the time they look nothing like that in real life.

Just know that there is no ‘ideal’ when it comes to beauty, being your true self is beautiful enough and when you love yourself it really shows to the people around you and that kind of positivity radiates. Who knows, you could end up helping someone else? If it helps unfollow accounts that trigger you to feel bad about yourself but just remember do not compare yourself. 

Surround yourself with positivity

Finally, be around people who make you feel special and who you can truly be your true self around, do activities you feel confident doing or even wear clothes that make you feel confident and feel good within yourself because that’s all that matters really. Putting yourself in a positive environment will in turn make you feel positive and happy. 

Just a side note: treat yourself how you would treat others, if you wouldn’t throw insults at your best friend then don’t do it to yourself it’s not worth it!

I hope this helped at least one of you guys! Just remember that everyone is amazing in their own way and even though loving yourself can take time, by replacing negativity with positivity gradually you will get there. Be kind to your body and yourselves!

Have a great weekend! 

All love S x