How To Love And Care For Yourself

SELF-LOVE IS THE BEST LOVE. WHEN WE THINK OF LOVE WE OFTEN ASSOCIATE IT WITH LOVE OUTSIDE OF OURSELVES. WE THINK OF ROMANTIC, INTIMATE, OR RELATIONSHIP LOVE; HOWEVER, IT IS DIFFICULT TO LOVE SOMEONE ELSE, IF YOU ARE NOT LOVING YOURSELF PROPERLY. IF YOU ARE NOT PROPERLY CARING AND LOVING YOURSELF, COMMUNICATING YOUR NEEDS, ETC., YOU MAY TEND TO MAKE YOUR NEEDS AND WANTS THE RESPONSIBILITY OF YOUR PARTNER, AND VICE VERSA, WHILE CONTINUING TO NEGLECT YOURSELF.
Self-care includes but is not limited to: what you allow yourself to accept from people, what you put into your mind, body, and spirit, proper rest, control of emotions, taking responsibility for your own feelings, and honesty with self-feeling whole yourself, so you aren’t anxious and dependent on other people to “give” you what you “need.” A healthy relationship is being whole on your own instead of expecting to be completed by someone or something else. When you are whole, you are able to share that overflow of love with each other, and compliment each other, rather than complete each other. It is learning to depend on yourself to meet the majority of your needs.
Self-care involves introspection. Evaluate your thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. It is reviewing your self-talk. Would you talk to a loved one the way you talk to yourself?
It is building a relationship with yourself, making a spreadsheet of your debt, and enforcing a morning routine. It’s putting down the junk food, sodas, sweets, and cooking yourself healthy meals. It’s facing your problems, instead of calling the masking the problem with drugs and alcohol. It is sweating through another workout, telling a toxic friend/family member/someone you love, that you don’t want to hang out anymore. It’s choosing people who are good too, and for you. It’s accepting yourself fully, yet making a pact to yourself, to continue to grow. It includes meditation, and choosing to make the best decisions for you!
Taking a mandated break to do simple things for yourself is definitely part of self-care. True self-care is not limited to bubble baths, massages, and take out. It is often making the choice to build a life you don’t need to regularly escape from.
This often takes doing the thing you least want to do. Self-care has very little to do with “treating yourself” and a lot more to do with parenting yourself and making choices for your highest good. It is choosing a life that feels good to you internally, rather than a life that looks good to outsiders.