With Valentine’s Day fast approaching the month of February can be a great time to focus on love. The word love encompasses all relationships, both those you have with others and perhaps more importantly, the one you have with yourself. The term self love is heavily used in culture today and although it can sound like a great notion, many of us just simply don’t know how to tap into the feeling of self love. No matter where you are currently on your self love journey, there are specific practices that you can implement into your everyday life to help to improve your self love. We have collated six simple techniques below to help get you started.
Self care can mean different things to different people. For some, it may mean taking time out to immerse yourself in an inspiring book. For others, it may be pampering yourself with your favourite body products and taking a long hot bath. Take some time today to journal about what activities you love to do most, what lights you up or brings you a sense of peace? Once you have collated your list find time within your calendar to schedule these activities. On aeroplanes the safety video instructs that in order to help others you must put your own oxygen mask on first, this principle also applies in the area of self care. Take care of yourself and it will allow you to have the capacity to take care of others.
As human beings, we’re made up of our body, mind and our spirit. Oftentimes our days are spent revolving around the needs of the mind and body and rarely do we take time out to connect with the most integral part of our being, our spirit. Our spirit is our most direct connection to the infinite universal intelligence and when we connect to it we may find increased calm, heightened intuition and a stronger sense of love and connection. To tap into your spirit, take some time out of your day to meditate. If you are new to meditation and don’t know how to get started check out this ‘7 Types Of Meditation’ guide we created.
We all have a wide spectrum of emotions that we can feel on a daily basis. Our emotions can range from love, peace and joy to anger, bitterness and sadness. Many of us have labelled our emotions as either good or bad depending on our perspectives. While we crave and honour feeling our ‘good’ emotions, it can be quite common that we try to repress or ignore our ‘negative’ emotions. However, emotions are simply indicators of how we are thinking and feeling at any given moment. All emotions should be honoured and felt with equal respect enabling them to be released from the body. Next time a ‘negative’ emotion arises for you, try sitting with it and really feeling into it to see what wisdom it is trying to tell you, once you have received the message, thank the emotion and allow it to be released.
Gratitude is one of the easiest ways to enable us to tap into the higher vibrations of the universe. The more regularly we allow ourselves to synchronise with this high vibrational practice, it will raise our internal vibrational set point and will raise our magnetism, allowing us to manifest with more ease. Start your morning by journaling, creating a list of five things about yourself that you are grateful for. Depending where you are on your self love journey you may have to start small, such as loving your name, your eyelashes or your compassion. The more your self love and vibration rises over time, the easier it will become to acknowledge and appreciate how truly fabulous and loveable you are. You may wish to light your Rose Quartz Intention Candle during this practice to help amplify the feelings of love.
As human beings, we are wired to need connection with others to thrive. When you are in a dark place it can feel safer to isolate yourself, however, it has been scientifically proven that having a strong support system helps people overcome challenges more easily and maintain a state of mental well-being. Be sure to schedule in time with your loved ones, or join a group activity to help feed your soul. Even something as simple as sending a loving text message to a friend or leaving a positive comment on someone’s social media post can lead to a rush of feel-good endorphins.
Our bodies are miraculous, they breathe and keep our hearts beating alongside countless other functions. Despite this, many of us can often self sabotage our bodies, punishing them with poor nutrition or depriving ourselves of sufficient water or movement. Try treating your body like the holy temple that is it and rewarding it with wholesome foods and exercise that light you up and bring you joy. Massage is also a great way to honour your body and it can be a great mindfulness technique. If you don’t feel comfortable being massaged by hand try a tool such as Gua Sha to get you started.
We hope these tips are helpful, let us know your favourite self love rituals in the comments below.