The power of Self- compassion and self love practices
In this demanding society, full of beauty standards and unrealistic expectations, it has become easy for us to be caught up in the pursuit of perfection. It has been a normal act to compare to others and be so overly critical for our own flaws. In the midst of all go this, it is important to cultivate self compassion and self love as an essential practice for nurturing a healthier mindset.
Self compassion is the act of extending compassion and empathy to yourself in moments of despair, suffering and failure. It involves recognising your pain and responding with positivity and faith.
Incorporating self compassion and self love:
Mindful self awareness
Begin by cultivating mindfulness. This is the practice of being full aware and non critical to in your current situation. By being mindful to our thoughts and feelings, we can identify the self critical patterns and replace them with more compassion and positivity.
Self Kindness
Treat yourself with the same positivity, warmth and kindness, as you would to your family, friends and clients. When in the face of defeat or current setbacks, then offer comfort and words of encouragement to yourself for a better mindset and approach. Be kind to yourself, you are human. Stop cultivating perfection.
Self Validation
Take recognition of your own feelings and experiences as valid and significant. Practice self validation by expressing your own feelings without judgement or suppression.
Cultivate Gratitude
Take time each day to be grateful towards yourself and your life. Be appreciative of the little things, things that may go unseen such as the weather, your support or even community. Develop a gratitude practice and it allows you to shift your perception to self appreciation and even lets you adopt a positive outlook.
Benefits of Self compassion and self love:
Reduces stress and anxieties
Self compassion provides a shield towards negative thoughts which builds emotional resilience and reduces stress and anxiety levels dramatically.
Creates healthier relationships
By cultivating self love and self compassion, we develop a greater capacity towards compassion. This seeps into our relationships with friends, family and lovers, enabling us to handle our approach in these relationship a lot better.
Increased Self Esteem
Opening yourself up to self love and self compassion enables you to create more positive image of yourself and allows you to be more accepting of yourself. You increase your self esteem and boost your confidence.
Encourages personal growth
Being more compassionate and loving to ourselves enables us to accept any mistakes and flaws we have. This makes room for improvement and we view our failures as lessons to be learnt from. This makes room for personal development and room for increasing our knowledge to better ourselves. We adopt a growth mindset from this.
Self compassion and self love are transformative processes which cultivate empowering, fulfilling lifestyles. By adopting these practices, we promote better compassion, accepting relationships, increased mental and emotional well being and even reduced stress. Treating ourselves with love and kindness is not selfish but rather an act towards changing our mindset, enabling us to flourish and make a positive impact.
"How you love yourself is how you teach others to love you." - Rapi Kaur
When will you begin to love yourself?