5 Ways To Bring in More Self Love
5 Ways To Bring in More Self Love
Self Love was the word or should I say phrase (if we’re being picky) of 2019, and as we move into a new year and new decade, I’m sure, like me, you’re just bloody ready to love yourself. Loving yourself is a journey, and even for someone like me who has been working at it for a long time, sometimes it’s easier than others, and it certainly isn’t a linear or straight forward process.
Nevertheless over my years or building self love, overcoming disordered eating and learning to deal with depression and anxiety, I have come to find several tools extremely helpful!
Loving yourself is a journey, and even for someone like me who has been working at it for a long time, sometimes it’s easier than others
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Mirror Work
I still to this day find this one hard. Looking at yourself in the mirror every morning when you have sleep in your eyes and would rather still be in bed or sipping on coffee can be hard. But it’s worth it. How can you expect anybody else to really SEE you when you can’t even look into your own eyes? If it feels too much to just set an alarm for 1-2 minutes and do some self eye gazing, or heck, even having a conversation, try Louise Hay’s beautiful book ‘Mirror Work’, it was really helpful for me!
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Affirmations
Affirmations and mantra work has really changed my life for the better. And for a very long time one of my daily affirmations was “I love myself unconditionally”, in fact I should probably bring that one back in. Choose an affirmation in the present tense that makes you feel good and will encourage your subconscious to start radiating self love and say it 3 x every morning, and every time throughout the day when you feel your self worth wavering.
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Exercise.
I think for so long exercise was almost shamed because of the way we can abuse it. But for me personally working out and moving my body makes me feel so grateful to have it. In fact, my whole self love journey started because I have 2 major knee surgeries a few years ago and I was so astounded at the way my body healed itself when I gave it the opportunity. Whether it’s running, hiking, yoga, Pilates, CrossFit, weightlifting, something else or a combination of all of those (if you can fit all of that into your life fair play!), whatever makes you feel good, do more of it. Plus, exercising literally releases feel good hormones so it’s like... go figure.
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Nutrition
I am not going to tell you to count calories or track your food. That is 100% not my vibe and whilst I know it works for some people, I think many of us who are present in the wellness world on social media have seen the repercussions when it comes to limiting certain foods. However, working with a nutritionist gave me so much insight into the things I was putting into my body and the truth is, I feel better and love myself and my body more when I am eating well and when I am eating food that makes me feel good. No shock there. Don’t ‘cut out’ anything, but every time you go to make a food choice decide how you want to feel and choose from there. If your answer is a healthy salad, fab, if it’s pizza, awesome.
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Write Yourself a Forgiveness Letter
This is something we should all do frequently, as quite often it’s hardest to forgive yourself. We all do things that we later come to regret, nobody is morally and ethically perfect (and if you believe you are - sorry love, but your shit stinks just like the rest of us), and therefore we all have certain memories and situations that weigh heavy on our soul and that can, if gone unchecked, bring us down and keep us vibrating at a lower frequency (meaning we’re more likely to bring in and attract more negativity and things we DON’T want). So sitting down and getting a piece of paper and writing down the fact that you forgive yourself for all that shit you wish you’d never done is so healing and can be so powerful. It will probably be quite challenging at first but if you keep at it it gets easier and even more fulfilling. Plus, you can burn the shit out of that letter and feel super powerful and witchy!
There are of course tonnes of ways you can start to build self love, and I have many more things that I do to help build up the relationship I have with myself. If you’d like to work on a 1:1 basis with me to help kickstart your 2020 and put into place habits and rituals so that you can truly start to feel that beautiful feeling of loving yourself and feel free from self hate and unworthiness, email me at hannahrosecluley@gmail.com or DM me on IG for more info on my Coaching