We hear so much about self-love and the importance of taking care of ourselves these days, but what does that really mean? What does it look like and how do we truly embody loving ourselves fully? With anything, there are many different components and levels of creating healthy daily self-love practices to maintain a well-balanced lifestyle.
In this article, I’m going to share with you the importance of a holistic approach to self-love and self-care, and my favorite daily self-love practices you can start today!
We consist of three major aspects: mind, body, and soul. It’s important that we address each one of these aspects as a whole.
Some things are commonly well-known facts and other things I will be sharing may come as a surprise. My intention in writing this article is to inspire, educate and to provide reminders of the benefits of creating very doable healthy habits of self-love.
6 Self-Love Daily Practices
1.Mindfulness
A great place to start in creating a self-love/self-care routine is MINDFULNESS.
Everything starts within. Our minds literally dictate the outer reality of our worlds. When our minds are filled with senseless ramblings, toxic conversations, non-stop stress and worry, repetitive thoughts from the past and obsessing over small things it affects our overall health tremendously.
How you think and how you feel creates your state of being. Be intentional in your behaviors, actions, and reactions.
Set the intention for yourself to expand your awareness and knowledge of being mindful and watch how quickly information comes into your sphere. Make a commitment to loving yourself on a deeper level.
A great resource on ways to unlock your brain’s full potential is Dr. Joe Dispenza author of “You Are the Placebo: Making Your Mind Matter“.
His studies have proven that meditation and mindfulness when well-practiced can put us on the path to understanding and breaking deep-rooted bad habits and even illnesses.
For more about mindfulness and learning to cultivate a practice see our article “Meditations For Beginners: Best Ways To Start Your Practice” to assists you in beginning and maintaining your meditation practice.
Learn about the Law of attraction and how it works and how you can work with it.
2. Spiritual and Physical Diet
What you feed your spiritual body and your physical temple is as important as mindfulness.
Many religions and spiritual communities speak of the importance of maintaining a clean healthy diet and the reason for that is because our vessels operate more effectively when we are free of toxic chemicals and processed foods. We thrive with living organic whole foods that are free of pesticides and endocrine disruptors. Endocrine disruptors consist of synthetic chemicals that are in products like plastics and fragrances can mimic hormones and interfere with or disrupt the delicate endocrine dance. We’re exposed to these chemicals daily.
Here’s a list of things you can do to lower your exposure:
- wash your hands frequently avoiding fragrances and anti-bacterial soaps;
- avoid perfumes and highly fragrant cleaning products and soaps. Use therapeutic grade essential oils instead;
- use glass instead of plastic. Any time you’re in the market for something plastic research for safer alternatives;
- dust and vacuum floors and furniture often;
- try to avoid cans and canned foods, instead choose fresh, frozen or dried foods;
- filter your tap water;
- rethink your cosmetics and buy from companies that are dedicated to creating clean, non-toxic and cruelty-free products;
- clean smarter, buying from companies that voluntarily disclose their ingredients look for the “Safe Choice Label” or make homemade cleaners using baking soda and vinegar which are healthy and effective cleaners.
Spiritual Diet
Now let’s talk about a spiritual diet! It consists of anything you take in through your five senses: smell, sight, sound, touch, taste.
You may ask why is this so important to our journey of self-love? Here’s why; everything we take into our spiritual bodies gets stored and recorded in some fashion.
For example, if you watch a scary movie filled with lots of violence you may often find yourself having nightmares and this is because we have fed this into our psyche and it gets stored in our subconscious.
When we listen to hardcore lyrics and that are filled with violent suggestions and disrespectful lyrics we are more inclined to be aggressive and desensitized to things that are harmful to our spirit.
It’s important to fill your spirit with loving, positive and kind images, sounds, smells and tastes.
We live in a world filled with violent and depraved imagery that our television shows, movies, and video games are full of. It has quite frankly become the norm but in reality, our bodies and nervous systems respond to the hurtful and violent imagery as though it is real.
Develop a practice of tuning into pleasant and more palatable information.
I’m certainly one to practice moderation in all things and I’m not suggesting that you can completely shield or rid yourself from unpleasant sights, sounds, tastes and smells, but what I am suggesting is to be mindful and set personal boundaries that ensure that you are feeding your soul food that is enhancing as opposed to limiting or harmful.
3. Sleep Well
In the last few years, there has been a surge of information coming out about how critical it is that we get the proper amount of rest required for high functionality.
In today’s world, it has become fashionable to work and play as hard as you can push yourself. It’s become unpopular to sleep. It’s been programmed in our society that we should be pushing ourselves to do more, to take on more, to keep pushing through our exhaustion at the cost of our health.
We have to begin re-writing this program. We have to educate ourselves and develop healthy practices that allow us to get the optimal amount of rest needed for us to be able to live in our highest expression.
4. Physical Exercise
In today’s world, we see such a polarity where exercise and physical activity is a concern. It seems like people are either fitness fanatics or extremely sedentary. It’s vital that you create a well-balanced exercise routine that is customized around your interests and things that inspire you.
One of the reasons I feel getting inspire to be more active can be such a slow process is because people tend to think in limiting ways of being active. It does not always have to be a gym membership or a yoga class, although those activities are great too if that’s what you’re inspired by. I find what works best is doing things that make you happy while you are participating in them and things that give you a sense of stress release. Ideally, you want to do things that give you a well-rounded exposure to increase your heart rate, blood flow, moving energy through your body, increasing flexibility, sense of calm and creating joy.
There are so many healthy activities that increase your self-care practice.
Here is a list of things that may pique your interest:
- dancing;
- swimming;
- aerobics;
- pilates;
- tai chi;
- martial arts;
- walking in nature;
- yoga;
- sports;
- stretching;
- calisthenics;
- jumping rope;
- skating;
- hiking.
My point here is that if you get involved in something that you really enjoy vs. just straight forward exercise you will be more likely to be consistent and it won’t feel like a chore that you dread. We all go through times of feeling unmotivated or sluggish. A great suggestion is to remind yourself that you deserve to live a healthy lifestyle in a healthy body.
Also trying new things and learning new skill sets will enhance your mindset towards getting involved in exercise activities.
If you are on a tight budget and can’t afford classes, memberships and extracurricular things YouTube will be your best friend. There’s a teacher with free content for literally everything you could possibly be interested in. Research your App Store it’s a great tool for finding apps that help you get involved and track your progress as well.
5. Expand your knowledge
By expanding your awareness you will naturally enhance your vitality. Sometimes we get complacent in what we think we already know. We are stuck in limiting patterns and mindsets.
Challenge yourself to grow! This can also be done in so many ways. Here are some things that really aide in strengthening your self-care practices:
Journaling
- allows you to express emotions
- self-dialogue
- enhance writing skills
- promotes inner creativity
- personal growth
- memories to remember
- increases abilities to problem solve
Drawing, painting and creating art
- Improves memory
- Release of hidden emotions
- Stress relief
- Increase of emotional intelligence
- Improved communication skills
Reading self-help books or hobby related reading
- Puts you on a path where you can read, practice strategies learned, and make improvements in your life without having to ask others
- Creates inspiration
- Fine-tunes your hobbies and skill-related activities
- Increases your intellect
Learning new languages
- Makes you a more effective communicator
- Could improve memory
- Encourages cultural appreciation
- Enhance concentration, better listening skills, increases the ability to multi-task
- Boost your confidence
- Gain new perspectives
- Awakens neural pathways
Learning how to play instruments
- Reduces stress
- Produces patience & perseverance
- Increases memory capability
- Uses almost every part of the brain
- Develops music appreciation
- Cultivates creativity
- Strengthens immune system
Taking voice lessons/singing
- Singing is a natural antidepressant
- Improves your posture
- Singing is a workout
- Lowers your stress levels
- Singing aids in good nights rest.
6. Pamper Yourself
Pampering yourself may be one of the most pleasurable self-care acts to make a priority in your life. Treating yourself to a variety of self-loving actions to improve your overall well being is very important to your vitality.
Many of us make excuses that we don’t have the time or extra money but in fact, there are many inexpensive at-home therapies you can do for yourself and you have to prioritize your me-time. Maybe instead of watching your favorite tv show or working an extra hour on a project, you can choose to give back to yourself first.
You can do small self-care acts daily as well as setting aside at least one day a week that is purely dedicated to pampering yourself.
Small acts go a long way. Daily presence with yourself takes little effort.
It could be something as small as having a cup of herbal tea and enjoying a few moments of silence. Taking a short walk and saying affirmations. Taking a nap, listening to relaxing music, reading a few chapters of your favorite book, pulling weeds in your garden, planting seeds in your garden, spending quality time with your pets, cutting fresh flowers and making floral arrangements to beautify your space. There are literally endless amounts of things you can do.
Here are some of my daily and weekly go to’s :
#2 Exfoliating
#3 Salt baths
#4 Ocean swimming/floating
#6 Self mani/pedicures
#7 Deep hair conditioning
#8 Face masks
#9 Home yoga
#10 Organizing my home
#12 Decluttering
Other really great things that you can do to pamper yourself is getting reiki, massages, acupuncture, cupping, floating in deprivation tanks, and getting network spinal treatments, the lists go on and on!
The Bottom Line
The beauty of self-love is that you get to choose how you show up for yourself and the choices are limitless and the benefits are profound. Self-care is anything that enhances your mood increases your vitality supports your well-being.
I hope you find inspiration and motivation to create a routine of positive self-loving things you can get excited about and experience the goodness of how it feels to look and feel good in your body, mind, and soul.