6 Self-Love Exercises You Need to Do
How often do you show yourself respect? Do you typically take the initiative to do things that boost your self-esteem, that honour the body you are in? Do you actually love yourself?
It is so easy to be good to yourself, to practise self-love in small steps that will leave you feeling completely enamoured with who you are and all that you are capable of becoming. These are just six of our favourite methods.
Self-trust
In any relationship, trust is paramount. This includes fostering a sense of confidence in yourself.
One of our favourite self-love exercises to establish this is by going out on self-dates. Regardless of your relationship status, get to know yourself first and foremost. In taking the initiative to date yourself, you can use this time to expand your knowledge of yourself: your likes and dislikes, your desires, your goals. Over time, this can build a sense of trust, as you come to realize that you know exactly what you want.
The more you know yourself, the more you can trust the decisions that you make.
Self-respect
Learning how to show yourself respect in every way imaginable is a pivotal aspect of self-love. While this means respecting your boundaries, surrounding yourself with uplifting people, pursuing your passions, and (put bluntly) not taking any crap from people, it’s also so much more.
Giving yourself a better sex-positive education than that learned in school is essential. In doing so, we don’t feel the need to be ashamed or embarrassed by our bodies, our desires, our kinks and fetishes. We realize that there is no need for slut-shaming, for sexism, for homophobia. Self-respect comes from an understanding that we all deserve respect.
Self-compassion
Not every day is going to be a great day. We’re not always going to meet our deadlines or accomplish a goal immediately. We won’t always be happy; in fact, our mental health may sometimes be in complete shambles. It’s times like these where we must shower ourselves in compassion by acknowledging the hiccup, allowing ourselves to feel the associated emotions, and then work towards overcoming it.
Some ways to help with this are speaking to your therapist, reading books on the subject at hand, or even finding journaling prompts that help you work out the thought processes churning in your mind at the moment.
Self-acceptance
What does ‘self-acceptance’ mean to you? Is it loving your body as it is? Is it having enough self-esteem to take a nude, even if it’s just for yourself to look at? Is it celebrating even your small victories with a happy dance? Is it being okay with the fact that you didn’t land a new client today, but you might sign them on later this month?
Actually, it can be all of these things — they are all equally important! Regardless of how you are making strides to increase your sense of self-acceptance, it’s a decisive step in the right direction.
Self-prioritization
We love acts of self-love and self-care because they are so simple to carry out when you begin to prioritize yourself and your desires. The simple practice of self-love can take on many forms: soaking in a hot bath, going for a relaxing massage, buying that decadent slice of cake you’ve been eyeing at the bakery, or even going for a long solo drive downtown or out to the countryside. However you feel you can best prioritize yourself — and whether or not that changes from day to day — do it!
Self-pleasure
Last, but certainly not least, take the time to pleasure your body. Learning about what your body responds to sexually has an incredible way of boosting your mood, your self-esteem, and your overall love of your body. While manual stimulation can certainly do the trick, consider an array of other methods (including sex toys for your penis or sex toys for your vagina) to experiment with varying sensations.
As with anything, though, please be conscious of your boundaries and if something does not feel comfortable to you, never feel obligated to go forward and try it.
To practise self-love goes beyond mere acceptance. While this is an excellent starting point, self-love exercises expand into boosting your self-esteem, believing in yourself fully, and doing small things each day to honour who you are now and who you are becoming (including learning how to show yourself respect).
In doing this, we can truly be good to ourselves. We can truly grow.
How do you be good to yourself? What are the top self-love exercises you practise? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
