How do You Love Yourself?

How do You Love Yourself?

By Breanne Szabados

This month at The Pharm, we are celebrating love; in particular, self-love. How do you show yourself love? I admit, I am not always great at loving myself. The way I speak to myself is often judgmental and unkind. I am so critical of myself, my appearance, my actions; if I don’t look the way I think I should or do things in a way that I consider “perfect,” than I am often pretty tough on myself.

I agree that self-love often includes the things we do to take care of our bodies: moving our bodies, getting a massage or facial, wearing sunscreen, doing things that make us happy, etc. Those things I am quite good at doing on a regular basis. It’s the critical self-talk that needs to change in order for me to truly be more loving to myself; and this is the type of self-love that has the greatest impact. I’m not sure if it is societal pressure, the way I grew up or my own impossible standards for myself or all of these things combined, but I would never speak to a friend the way I often speak to myself. Finding a way to shift that tendency is so important in order to truly show ourselves love. That is the work. I’m trying to get to the place where I can stop any negative self-talk in its tracks in order to shift that to giving myself grace instead of being overly critical. It is not easy and often a constant struggle, but so worth it in order to be kinder to myself.

I am doing a group gratitude practice this month, and I have been trying to focus some of my gratitude on myself. The things I love about me and my body. This is one way I have been trying to show myself more love and focus on being grateful for my body and the things that it does for me and how it carries me through so much on a daily basis. It has helped me look at myself differently, allowing me to find some more softness in my dialogue with myself. I know that this is something that challenges me, so I am really spending some time this month to focus on ways to better love myself, just as I am. Wishing you so much love for yourself this month and always!