There’s nothing more important than how you think and feel about yourself. We’ve all heard of Self love but how many of us actually know the true meaning of it. No its not about considering yourself the best among others, or about praising yourself all the time or about being selfish. Then what is it? And why is it so important? Let me decode it for you all. It is about having an high opinion about yourself, who you are and what you do. Basically, being in love with yourself, your flaws, and your choices. It is about being grateful for what you are blessed with in life.

Tweet

Okay I’ll tell you a little about myself first. I happened to be my biggest critic sometime back. Whatever situation it may be, my inner voice would shout disruptive thoughts in my mind and try to drag my self esteem down. This often led me to do things to please people and gain acceptance from them. I’ve gone through times when I’ve been super depressed about my life and afraid of any kind of change. When I thought I wasn’t good enough and had no purpose at all. That was a difficult period I would say.

Well now I’ve almost overcome it and I feel great about myself. My heart is overflowing with gratitude every morning and I try to share the positivity with everyone around me including my followers. I love myself unconditionally, the whole of me.

 

(Dress: Poshpride, Shoes: Steve Madden, Earrings: H&M, Sunglasses: Rayban)

Lets talk about why loving yourself and maintaining a high self esteem is so important:

• To be happier than you currently are.
• To be less likely to self sabotage.
• To have inner stability.
• To make your life simpler and less of an emotional rollercoaster.
• To be more independent and stable.

Now I’m going to share with you few of the most powerful tips that will help you in building self esteem and falling in love with the person that you are.

1. Say no to your inner critic.
We all have an inner voice that whispers thoughts in our mind which at times can be demotivating and critical. You need to learn to stay stop or no to this critic every time it pops up. Refocus your mind on something more constructive and think of positive things instead.

2. Stop Comparing.
Don’t fall into the comparison trap because there will always be someone who has more or is better than you at something in the world.
Compare yourself to the previous you. Look at how far you’ve come. Focus on You. On your results. And how you can and how you have improved your life.

3. Spend time with Supportive people
Its very difficult to keep up your self esteem if the most important people in your life drag you down on a daily basis.
So spend less time with people who are unkind, negative or unsupportive of your dreams or goals. And give more time to positive, uplifting people who have more human and kinder standards and ways of thinking about things.

4. Take a Self-appreciation break
Write down three things that you appreciate about yourself, in a journal everyday. It can be as small as listening to someone’s problems for a few minutes or making a friend laugh. These self-appreciation notes will make you happy in the long run and give a good self esteem boost. They will also reload you with a lot of positive energy.

5. Handle failures in a more Positive way
Its OK to fail. Its normal to stumble on your path to success. Don’t fall into a pit of despair and instead find the upside. Focus on optimism and the opportunities. See what you can learn from your mistakes and what is that one opportunity you can find in this situation. This will help you change your viewpoint and hopefully not hit the same bump a little further down the road.

6.  Be kind to people
When you’re kind towards other people, you tend to treat yourself in a kinder way too. And of course how you treat other people is the way they treat you in the long run.

7. Healthier motivation habits
There are times when we want to achieve something but we lack motivation to do so. For instance, you want to get fit but there is nobody to push you to go the gym. In such situations, you need to be your own motivating factor. Remind yourself of the deeply felt benefits you’ll get by following this new path. Like getting into better shape, and building more strength and energy. Similarly, do things that you really like doing. When you want something bad, the motivation to achieve it comes pretty automatically. What I want to say here is that when you are highly motivated, your inner critic will show up a lot less often, which in turn, will keep you positive and going.

8. Stop pleasing others
The last and the most important tip that will succour you in attaining self love is to stop worrying about what others think about you. You can’t make everyone happy and that is a fact. So why stress about them. Rather focus on pleasing yourself and keeping YOU happy and satisfied.

 

Cheers to loving ourselves  Ciao!

Editor’s Note: Read more from Naina’s blog, ispeakwhatyoulove!