4 Fun and Gentle Ways To Love Yourself Deeply

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4 Fun and Gentle Ways To Love Yourself Deeply Title Graphic, in the background is a young woman showing a love sign against a blue background

Hey Sweet Friend:

You know who matters? You matter! And you are gorgeous, loveable and amazing. I hope you know it!

But that doesn’t make self-love any easier, does it?

And that’s ok! It’s totally normal, and completely common, to struggle with self-love. You are not alone!

But that doesn’t mean that things are completely hopeless. Sometimes little actions of self-kindness go a long way.

Which is why I’m share 4 gentle tips to love yourself.

Grab your favourite blanket, relax and get ready to feel inspired. Let’s talk about loving your gorgeous self…

Why Even Work On Self-Love

A woman wearing winter sweater at home hugging herself

Your relationship with yourself is pretty darn important. You spend every second of every day with yourself, after all. And how you feel about yourself can have a huge effect on how you feel in general.

Creating a positive and loving relationship with yourself can be a game changer!

How exactly does self-love change the game?

  • Boosts confident and assertiveness
  • Reduces self-criticism
  • Aids in stress management
  • Helps you build positive relationships with others

And you truly deserve all of that.

You deserve to be your own bestie, cheering yourself on and making yourself feel awesome, loved and cared about.

Here are a few ideas to help you get there:

1. Connect With Yourself 

A young woman posing and playing with her hair in front of a gray backdrop

There’s no better way to get to know lovely you than working to connect with yourself. It helps you better understand what you want, need and believe. And that knowledge, respect and self-understanding further empowers you to make decisions based on what works for you, instead of what you think others might want or expect from you. It’s win win!

How do you connect with yourself?

There are tons of ways to form a tighter bond with your gorgeous self, so focus on what works best for you.

Some of my fave self-connection ideas include:

2. Schedule Some You Time

A woman giving herself a loving hug

What time is it? You time baby! Put some time aside for yourself. You deserve to indulge in self-care and all of those hobbies you adore. And, hey, this will help to strengthen your connection with yourself. So it’s basically a 2 for 1!

Making time for yourself helps to ease stress and prevent burn out. And, since you can’t pour from an empty cup, everyone around you will benefit when you take time to recharge your batteries.

Short on time? Take 10 minutes to enjoy a shower. Self-care doesn’t have to take long.

Related: The 15 Best Ways To Enjoy A Self-Care Sunday

3. Silence Your Inner Mean Critic

A woman showing her self love by hugging herself

We all have an inner critic who likes to pop up from time to time. But they don’t deserve a megaphone! And they’re definitely getting in your way as you work to love yourself fiercely.

When negative self-talk happens, work on taking it’s power away by responding with kindness or simply letting it go. Try to imagine if you would say the same thing to a friend. Or if you’d ever allow someone else to talk to you that way. No way, right?! So why should our inner mean girl’s critiques be taken seriously? The biggest bully in your life shouldn’t be living in your mind.

Journaling, positive self-talk, self-compassion and counseling can all be helpful tools as you work to neutralize your inner critic. Whatever works best for you is awesome!

Related: 3 Things You Need To Know About Practicing Self-Love

4. Cut The Comparisons

A young woman standing against a grey backdrop and making a heart/self love sign gesture

With social media proudly displaying everyone’s successes, it’s easy to constantly compare yourself to others and feel like you’ll never measure up.

But you don’t typically see the struggles and hard work behind someone else’s wins! We all struggle. And success never comes easy. We just don’t typically blast our hardships on Instagram. Which means that you’re often comparing yourself to an incomplete picture.

Instead of getting stuck in a comparison loop and feeling inferior, work on getting inspired! Ask yourself what you admire in the other person. And let that admiration motivate you as you pursue your own awesome goals.

Final Thoughts

A group of hands Forming Heart on White Surface

There are tons of awesome ways to work on creating a loving relationship with yourself. So many, I’ve written about it bunches! But, ultimately, what matters is that you’re there for you. Through the ups and the downs.

It’s normal to struggle with self-love. In fact, ups and downs are natural and totally expected. Like with any relationship, your relationship with yourself will come with highs and lows and that’s ok. Keep going and keep growing that love for yourself. You’re doing great!

I’d love to know what tips you’d add my list! Tell me how you work on loving yourself in the comments below.

Health and love,

sara-signature

Thought of the day: You are so incredibly worthy of all that beautiful love in your magnificent heart!

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Share The Love!

Sara | Ms. Health-Esteem

Sara Flanagan is a wellness writer and the creator of www.mshealthesteem.com, where she shares her story of being diagnosed with Graves Disease, a chronic autoimmune disease, and empowering herself to do everything she can to thrive in spite of her diagnosis. She writes articles on self-love, acceptance, wellness and nutrition. Join the Health-Esteem Family today and share in the journey.

33 Comments

  1. Reply

    Lizzy

    July 26, 2021

    I love these fun and gentle ways to love yourself. I think silencing the inner mean critic is my biggest aspiration.

    • Reply

      Sara | Ms. Health-Esteem

      July 29, 2021

      That’s a beautiful thing to aspire to! We all struggle with that darn inner critic! Working to take their megaphone away can help so much. I think it’s beautiful that you’re working on that <3. Thank you for sharing this with me Lizzy!

  2. Reply

    Claudia

    July 26, 2021

    I love these tips! Silencing your inner mean thoughts are one of the big ones in my opinion. We should be our own biggest cheerleaders, not our own worst enemies.

    • Reply

      Sara | Ms. Health-Esteem

      July 29, 2021

      Heck yes to this goodness Claudia! Cheering ourselves on helps us so, so much! We all deserve that kind of relationship with ourselves <3

  3. Reply

    Leanne Wong

    July 26, 2021

    Scheduling time for yourself is so important. It’s a huge part of self-care. If you don’t take time for yourself, you’ll completely burn yourself out.

    • Reply

      Sara | Ms. Health-Esteem

      July 29, 2021

      Absolutely! Thank you so much for adding this Leanne! We really do need to make time for ourselves so that we have the energy and steam to be present in other areas of our lives. Everyone wins when we prioritize self-love and care. I love this comment so much! <3

  4. Reply

    Dominique

    July 26, 2021

    It is so important to love yourself! These are great tips!

    • Reply

      Sara | Ms. Health-Esteem

      July 29, 2021

      Heck yes! Thank you so much Dominique!

  5. Reply

    The Super Mom Life

    July 26, 2021

    Thanks for the tips! I have the hardest time with comparisons. I need to stop doing that.

    • Reply

      Sara | Ms. Health-Esteem

      July 29, 2021

      Thank you for sharing this with me Heather! You absolutely aren’t alone! It’s so easy to compare ourselves, especially when we see so many heavily edited highlights on social media. Take it one step and one day at a time and make whatever adjustments help you the most (I’ve found muting or unfollowing accounts that turn on my comparison-itis really helps!) You’re doing awesome already, knowing that this affects you and needs to change. Keep going <3

  6. Reply

    Ivan Jose

    July 27, 2021

    Thank you for the affirmation. It’s nice know that I’m in fact on the right track when it comes to loving myself.

    • Reply

      Sara | Ms. Health-Esteem

      July 29, 2021

      I’m so happy to affirm your beautiful self-love journey Ivan! That’s awesome! Keep going, keep growing, keep glowing :). You’re doing great!

  7. Reply

    Kuntala

    July 27, 2021

    I love that you included ways to connect with yourself. I’ve seen other guides talk about connecting with yourself, but they never say how. It’s easier said than done without a guide!

    • Reply

      Sara | Ms. Health-Esteem

      July 29, 2021

      I’m so happy you enjoyed that! I agree, it can be so incredibly tough to connect with ourselves, especially when we have absolutely no idea where to start. I hope these ideas helped. And I’ll keep this in mind for a future post too! I really appreciate your insight Kuntala! <3

  8. Reply

    MidWife360

    July 27, 2021

    Simple but sweet! Love these ideas.

    • Reply

      Sara | Ms. Health-Esteem

      July 29, 2021

      Thank you so much! I’m really happy you enjoyed it! <3

  9. Reply

    A Nation of Moms

    July 27, 2021

    Self care and learning to love ourselves is such an important thing. Otherwise we waste so much time.

    • Reply

      Sara | Ms. Health-Esteem

      July 29, 2021

      It certainly makes life much brighter! We spend so much time with ourselves after all. How wonderful it is to be our own best friend!

  10. Reply

    Ntensibe Edgar

    July 27, 2021

    Yes, to more me time! I really need so much more of it these days! I need to think…

    • Reply

      Sara | Ms. Health-Esteem

      July 29, 2021

      I hope you can enjoy some much deserve you time very soon Ntensibe! Are you able to put aside some time and space for yourself?

  11. Reply

    Ramil Hinolan

    July 28, 2021

    They say, you cannot give love if you don’t love yourself first. So self-love is important before eyeing that amazing dude in the park.

    • Reply

      Sara | Ms. Health-Esteem

      July 29, 2021

      While I do think we can still experience and receive love, even if we aren’t quite there with our own self-love, it definitely helps us define what we want and deserve and make sure we’re receiving that! Self-love absolutely affects our relationships. It’s pretty darn powerful!

  12. Reply

    emman damian

    July 28, 2021

    I don’t like comparisons as we are all unique. We also have to silence and prove our inner critic wrong all the time. Believe in yourself!

    • Reply

      Sara | Ms. Health-Esteem

      July 29, 2021

      Such beautiful advice Emman! Believing in yourself and embracing your beautiful individuality goes such a long way :). Thank you for sharing this inspiring goodness with me!

  13. Reply

    linda

    July 28, 2021

    I closed myself for a longtime. Now i am trying to move on . Thanks for your article helped me lots.

    • Reply

      Sara | Ms. Health-Esteem

      July 29, 2021

      I’m so happy this helped Linda! Here’s to your self-love journey! May it be magical <3

  14. Reply

    Anosa - MyrabevLife

    July 28, 2021

    Having my own me time and cutting myself from comparing to other is really effective to me. Positivity and minding my own phase really gives me piece of mind.

    • Reply

      Sara | Ms. Health-Esteem

      July 29, 2021

      Those are all wonderful ways to be kind and loving towards yourself Anosa! Love it so much. Thank you for sharing that with me!

  15. Reply

    myusuftahmidillah

    July 28, 2021

    Lovely, it’s hard to love yourself if we always compared with other people in their successful life

    • Reply

      Sara | Ms. Health-Esteem

      July 29, 2021

      Comparison truly is the thief of joy!

  16. Reply

    Grasyah [Of Coffee and Crackers]

    July 29, 2021

    noted on this.. great read! thank you… You gotta love yourself more.

    • Reply

      Sara | Ms. Health-Esteem

      July 29, 2021

      I’m so happy you enjoyed it! Heck yes, self-love is awesome ^^

  17. Reply

    Kisha

    July 31, 2021

    This is something I have to work hard on everyday. I am my worst critic sometimes. These tips are great.

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Hiya! I’m Sara

I’m a wellness writer, Graves Disease thriver and self-love advocate.

And I’m passionate about empowering you to prioritize self-care and love yourself fiercely.

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