What is self love?

Self-love consists of accepting, respecting and valuing ourselves. It depends on our own will to love ourselves, and not on the circumstances that we have around us or the contexts in which we operate. If I asked you to say on a scale of 1 to 10 how much you love yourself, what would you answer? It probably depends on the day, on our emotions, on what is not happening at that exact moment. There are several factors that are directly linked to self-esteem, such as self-esteem, the ability to set limits, self-acceptance and the proper management of expectations throughout life. Self-esteem goes hand in hand with achievements, so self-esteem increases progressively over the years as goals are achieved. Self-love is a very important ingredient to enjoy psychological well-being and we can define it as the acceptance of the feelings we have for ourselves, towards our physique, personality, character, attitudes and behaviors. It is the respect, perceptions, value, positive thoughts and considerations that we have and it depends on our will and not on other people, nor on the situations or environments in which we operate.

To begin with, we must bear in mind that self-love is a psychological aspect that is part of the emotional dimension of every person and to strengthen it among the most frequent and most pertinent recommendations we can mention tasks such as:

1. Stay mindful of yourself. When you have self-love you know what you think, feel and want. This helps us to be aware of who we are and how much we are worth.
2. Act according to our needs: When we love we try to give the other what they need, it cannot be confused with fulfilling all their whims. The same happens with ourselves, we must focus on our needs, this will keep us away from behaviors that are not healthy.
3. Maintain proper personal care habits: We must spend time taking care of ourselves by eating a balanced diet, exercising, resting and sleeping the necessary time, sharing with friends, partner and family. However, we should not think that we are selfish in taking care of ourselves because self-love is a healthy exercise to have a good physical, mental and emotional balance.
4. Set limits: Loving yourself implies having the courage to set limits and to say NO to everything that affects you physically, emotionally or spiritually. Limits help us improve the quality of the relationships we establish and increase self-esteem
5. Review the reference group: It is normal for people to choose the groups and people with whom we want to socialize, which forces us to have a frame of reference from which we begin to assess our own competencies. Therefore, we are influenced by the reference group according to the assessment we receive and it is in our hands to assess whether that reference group satisfies us or not and thus take care of our self-esteem.
6. Meeting people: The more people we meet, the easier it will be for us to meet those with whom we connect, and who see qualities in us that others did not see. This strengthens by growing our self-esteem.
7. Avoid negative or toxic people: A person who loves himself avoids negative or toxic people and does not waste time with those who try to damage his spirit and above all protects his self-esteem. To cultivate our own love we must learn to cope with the most complex situations knowing how to impose our rights and needs.
8. Forgiving yourself: It is very common for us to be demanding and very hard on ourselves, punishing ourselves frequently, thus deteriorating our self-esteem. On the contrary, to strengthen our self-love we must learn from our mistakes, accept our humanity and forgive ourselves.
9. Valuing our strengths and weaknesses: Identifying our strengths and weaknesses is a fundamental aspect in our life because it helps us to know ourselves better, exploit our strengths and correct our weaknesses, thus improving our self-esteem.
10. Live with intention: To accept ourselves it is necessary to be aware of what is happening in our lives. To live a meaningful and healthy life we ​​must make decisions that direct us to achieve our purposes. This will make us feel successful by strengthening our self-esteem.