This article was inspired by Self-Love: 21 Ways You Can Become A Doctor Of The Soul
Understand the importance of self-love in healing your soul and maintaining a healthy life filled with joyful experiences. Continue reading and you will learn 7 simple steps that are crucial to your quest of attaining self-love.
The early years of our lives are extremely important to the development of the person we become. In those early years, we are educated in various ways such as how to read and write, basic computation skills, mannerism, ethics and so on.
All of our societal values and norms are conditioned into us during this time. Despite the time, effort, and resources that are invested in our nurturing process, one of the most essential aspects of personal grooming is completely neglected.
Self-love is one’s ability to accept all of the flaws along with the virtues. It is the ability to respect yourself for who you are.
During childhood, this is one aspect of upbringing that is completely neglected, one that is essential for learning how to take care of yourself and create healthy boundaries.
Instead, we are taught to inculcate self-sacrifice and self-denial. Although, they are not entirely dysfunctional, they do however create dysfunctional habits due to a lack of understand of loving oneself.
The secret behind a fulfilling life is not so much of a secret as all one needs to do is learn to love themselves, otherwise one can never truly learn to love others. We simply cannot know what it is like to love someone when we ourselves don’t know what it feels like to be loved by ourselves.
Healing the Soul by Learning to Love Oneself
One of the first and the most difficult steps towards self-love is to understand that a lot of what we were taught is false. Negating your own needs for the sake of your loved ones doesn’t do anyone any good, especially not you.
Lucky for us, with time and persistence anything can be achieved, meaning we can teach ourselves to heal our wounds and rid ourselves of the sickness that engulfs us and maintain a better quality of life and health through self-love.
The following are a few tips that will help you attain true self-love:
1. We Are What We Eat
Whether you believe it or not, we really are what we consume. The first step of self-love is to eliminate the foods that aid in your demise. Do whatever you must to eliminate or limit your intake of processed, sugary, and fatty foods.
Nowadays, there is so much research on the impact of food on our bodies and minds, that we can’t simply ignore anymore.
2. Indulge in the Pleasure of Reading
Reading is one of the best ways to expand your mind and,by far, the best source of finding your inspiration.
When you decide to read, make sure you choose the material that is beneficial to your growth, instead of wasting your precious time on gossip or the mainstream news.
There are some amazing books out there that can help you in your journey towards self-love.
3. Understand Your Sub-Personalities
We all have sub-personalities within us and, if we don’t understand them, they can have a paralytic and sabotaging affect on your lives.
The secret to overcoming the negative effects of our sub-personalities lies in the basic concept of understanding them. Once you understand your self-defeatist thoughts and actions, you can go about rectifying them.
4. Learn to Love Solitude
The most beautiful thing about solitude is that allows one to experience introspection on a level that provides insights and helps build perspective on life. Each day, try to take some time and dedicate it to yourself. This simple practice will allow you to reinstate harmony in your life.
5. Meditation is the Path to Self-Awareness
Self-awareness is a key skill that everyone should strive to attain. It allows one to identify their dysfunctional and self-destructive patterns.
Although, meditation can seem redundant and frustrating at first, if you stick with it, you will experience a form of joy and pleasure that is simply the greatest feeling in the world. It not only helps in one’s mental health and stability, but it is the most effective way to achieve self-awareness and, implicitly, self-love.
6. Try to Understand Your Cognitive Distortions
Cognitive distortions are exaggerations or irrational thought patterns that can perpetuate many of the psychological problems one might be experiencing, such as depression or anxiety.
Once you understand this dysfunctional habit of irrationally negating yourself, you can begin to love yourself.
7. Seek Out Supportive Companions
We are all social creatures and our social health has a huge impact on our lives.
In that regard, supportive companions will help you in every aspect of your life, inspiring and encouraging you when you’ll need it the most. Their supportive guidance will really help you out in the dreary periods of your life.
Conclusion
It is important for everyone to come to terms with who they are, because we are all imperfect and that is what makes us beautiful. Once you’ll accept your flaws, you will be able to improve and grow.
The journey of self-love is one filled with uplifting joy. As you embark on this new journey, you’ll enter a new phase in your life, and all of the new habits that you will adopt, will allow you to experience the truest form of joy that comes from self-love.
This article was inspired by Self-Love: 21 Ways You Can Become A Doctor Of The Soul, which was written Aletheia Luna. She is the co-founder, editor and author of popular spiritual website LonerWolf.com. As a transformational mentor and holistic writer, she has helped to guide thousands of people throughout the world on their paths of self-acceptance and wholeness. You can follow her work and private updates on Facebook.
Social Links: