How To Practice Self-Love: 5 Super Powerful Ways For A Happier You

Hey guys, welcome back to the channel. I'm super excited to talk about today's topic of how to practice self-love. As somebody who really has spent a lot of time focusing on learning how to develop self-love for myself, this is a subject I know really, really well, and these are my top favorite— top 5 favorite practices. Actually, I'm going to make it 6 because who doesn't appreciate a bonus? That said, before we dive in, I think it's important to understand why self-love is so important. And so for me, this journey of understanding why self-love is so important and learning to practice these different techniques started around 7, 8 months ago. I had definitely done some self-love practices in the past, but they were more indirect. And then around 7, 8 months ago, I was in this relationship that was really causing a lot of stuff to come up in me, and I was realizing that I was trying to use this relationship, this person to fill this gap inside myself, this hole of just not believing in myself and not having confidence in myself. And as I was learning this problem and understanding how it was impacting so many components of my life, I realized, wow, this is something I really need to spend time in. And that's why I realized— or that's when I realized how important self-love is. And it's— I did a whole video on this actual subject, which you can find in the description below. But just briefly, it really helps us in so many different areas. It helps us be more creative. It helps us to be more focused, to be kinder, more capable, so many different things. If you're interested in learning more about that, definitely check out that video. But before we get into the practices, there is one particular practice that I often hear about online, on social media, you know, reading stuff, talking to people that I don't think is actually as healthy and as beneficial And I think I just want to put a quick warning about it, and that is around, you know, accomplishing all types of crazy things and, you know, having a whole list of accomplishments that you're really, really proud of. I'm not saying that one shouldn't work hard, that we shouldn't try to do good work and be proud of stuff. But if we look to the exterior, if we look to the external world to feel validated for ourselves, that can be an endless hole of trying to accomplish stuff. So like, if you run a marathon, you're like, wow, I'm really proud of it. You know, the next day you're going to feel, okay, what now? What can I work on to feel proud of, right? And that can be this endless cycle instead of learning how to cultivate and change our mental mindset about who we are, how we believe about ourselves. And that's a mental reprogramming that we need to do. So the practices I'm going to talk about are more focused on this mental cultivation, and they won't really require all types of, you know, crazy efforts to have a positive change in your own life. So number 1, never beat yourself up. This one is super important. So if you're going to do any of these tactics that I mentioned in this video, or maybe in other videos you're watching, if you continue to beat yourself up, it's almost like you're swimming in a circle or just treading water. You're not really going to get too far if you're one moment trying to tell yourself, I'm great, or I'm wonderful, and then the next moment you're beating yourself up. So this is a super simple change, but anytime you notice that you're beating yourself up, you're not feeling your best, just try to stop it. And keep— every time you notice it again, just stop it and just never beat yourself up again. This is something I did a lot for most of my life. So when I discovered this and realized the importance of it, It was a huge change, and it's been one of the most powerful changes that I've made for my life. Number 2, positive affirmations. We're always thinking to ourselves, we're always thinking about the past, the future, the present, what's going on, right? And often we're talking to ourselves, and sometimes that talk can be negative, or sometimes it can be positive. And so the power of positive affirmations is just to keep reprogramming your mind to think more positively about who we are. And the more we think more positively about who we are, it creates these neural pathways in our minds. And the more those neural pathways get firm in our brain, the more they create this behavior and this self-belief, self-confidence within ourselves. So things like, I am amazing, I am hardworking, I am kind, I am generous, I am funny— whenever you know, the thing that you want to believe in about yourself. If you keep saying those things, slowly but surely they will sink into your mind as this new self-belief, and they will develop and cultivate into true self-love for yourself. Number 3: surrounding yourself with positive individuals, people that are uplifting you, making you feel loved, making you feel supported, giving you trust and belief in yourself, right? There's often the saying that goes around saying We are only the average of the 5 people that we spend the most time with. Something like that, I think it is. So if you think about it, like, if you spend time with negative people, you know, depressed people, angry people, it's hard to be positive when all these people around you are feeling so negative and talking in an unhealthy way. But instead, if you can surround yourself with people that are trying to grow, trying to be better, trying to be kind and generous and positive, that are loving you and supporting you and believing you, This is a matter of time that you're going to believe in yourself. You're going to feel great. You're going to want to go out there and have healthy habits and do great things and be kind and generous. So surrounding yourself with those type of people, healthy individuals, is incredibly important to build self-love. If you guys have a self-love practice that you love that I haven't mentioned yet or didn't mention at all in this video, just put it in the comments below. I'd love to hear new ideas. I'm sure folks that are watching this video would also love to hear different ideas. So leave a comment below. So number 4 is meditation. This was where my self-love journey started, really. This was about 6 years ago when I started practicing Vipassana meditation. Like I said, this was less direct for me at that time in terms of building self-love, but practicing meditation every day quieted the noise in my mind, all this negative talk in my mind about who I was, what I should be doing, what I should have said, what I who I should have talked to, all these type of things. And so meditation can be super powerful in terms of developing self-love, often in a little bit more of an indirect way. So just practicing, you know, 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes every day just to calm our mind down, to learn to be still, to quiet the noise in our brain, can really help to develop peace within us, kindness, generosity, and then indirectly the self-love, self-belief in herself. Number 5, mirror work. This is a bit similar to positive affirmations, but in a sort of different way. So mirror work is just when you wake up and you're going to brush your teeth or you go to the bathroom, just looking straight into the mirror, looking straight into your own eyes and just saying some positive things to yourself. Once again, like, I'm amazing, I'm wonderful, I'm kind, I'm hardworking, I am smart, I'm wise, I'm strong, I'm fit, whatever those things are that I'm loved, you know, whatever the things are that make you feel good about yourself, just looking straight into your eyes and saying to yourself those positive affirmations. It's a bit like having a friend. If you had a friend around you all the time and was just saying these positive things to yourself, you would start feeling really good about yourself. Unfortunately, like probably most of us, definitely me, We don't have a friend that can be around all the time to say these positive things, but we have ourselves. So just looking into the mirror and saying these positive affirmations to ourselves in time will sink into our brain and change our mental pathways and mental beliefs about who we are. And number 6, this is one of my favorite, is just internal reflection. This one I got from some Buddhist monks that I went to visit. I spent a lot of time in different monasteries And I went to talk to one of the monks and asked them, how do I cultivate self-love, self-belief in myself? And they recommended internal reflection, just to look up to your life and see the areas about you that you can be proud of. Now, maybe you're a good cook, maybe you're helpful around the house, maybe you're helpful to your parents or sibling, um, maybe you're really hardworking, maybe you're very funny. Just reflecting, taking some time to reflect on all the positive attributes for you. And he encouraged me to, uh, encouraged me to think, don't have— it doesn't have to be these huge accomplishments. It could be simple things, small things, but just take those small things and build on it, right? And that helps build some momentum slowly. And then try to see, are there areas in your life that maybe you would like to be better at? Maybe you want to be a little bit more hardworking. So instead of, uh, you know, watching Netflix in the evening, you do a little more work towards a hobby or an interest that you're passionate about. You know, maybe you want to get a little bit more fit, so instead of only working out once a week, you up it to 2 or 3 times a week. Just start small, and that slowly, that self-belief, that self-reflection that you're reflecting on and realizing about yourself will slowly help you build some momentum towards cultivating more and more of you into the habits and the behaviors that you're proud of and that you can really lean on to develop that self-love within yourself. So that's my top 6 favorite self-love practices. Curious to hear which one of those really resonated the most for you. Leave a comment below if there's something that you really liked or something that maybe I missed that I can add to the next video. But a key thing to remember is self-love is not something you're gonna watch this video and do it once and be done with. No, it's a daily practice, or something you should practice multiple times in a week. It's part of your— it should be part of your mental hygiene. Think of it a little bit like your physical hygiene, you know, you make sure to make time for brushing your teeth and showering and eating healthy. The same goes for our minds. Really important to keep our minds healthy. And self-love, this one little practice of self-love can really have a huge powerful impact in various parts of a life. And if you're curious about that, check out this video over here. Thanks!