Happy Thursday everyone! Or happy whatever day of the week it is when you’re reading this! This month, I’ve really steered my content towards the concept of self-confidence and self-love, and I’m going to keep riding that train because I find it SO important. Self-love is something to be practiced each day, which is why self-love habits are so crucial!
It’s not every day that we’re going to feel absolutely stellar and on top of the world. However, if we have good habits in place, we can ensure that even on the hard days we can love who we are and find comfort in that.
Right now, I am starting a new year in COLLEGE and life has felt simply crazy. I fell out of my routines because of all the changes going on. However, as I realized I was slipping out of these habits, I was losing a lot of my self-love and mental stability. As soon as I began to reimplement my old habits, I have found a new sense of confidence and belief in my abilities.
So basically, HABITS ARE SO IMPORTANT. They are important in every aspect.
Let’s dive deeper into my favorite self-love habits, and just how you can incorporate them into your very own routines.
1. Create a morning routine that makes you feel your best
I cannot stress this enough, a morning routine will change the course of everything else that you do. Having a stable morning routine gives you the motivation to start your day, and overall just puts you in the right headspace to get sh*t done.
My morning routine starts off with a glass of water. Afterward, I sit down and begin a nice, relaxing journal entry, and end with a short meditation. I’ve been doing this same routine for at least 4-5 months, and it has made me a more productive person. It has also reduced the amount of anxiety I’ve had IMMENSELY.
When you’re in a better headspace, practicing self-love becomes easy as pie. Creating a morning routine is the perfect way to easily achieve this headspace throughout your routine.
2. Journal for self-love
I didn’t want to say it, because almost every single blog post I’ve ever written has revolved around the habit of journaling, but I have to! How could I not? It can fix most of the world’s problems in my opinion.
There are SO many journaling prompts at our fingertips that are perfect for practicing self-love habits each day. You can completely shift the way you think about yourself through the way you write. It’s almost as if you’re manifesting your self-love.
Some questions you could write about are:
- What are you most proud of yourself for?
- What’s one characteristic you love about yourself?
I have an entire blog post dedicated to journaling prompts to boost self-confidence, which go hand-in-hand with self-love. Here’s the link to that post: https://xojacilynn.com/journaling-prompts-self-confidence/
On another note, self-love meditations are super great to pair with this as well! They’re incredibly effective… try it out!
3. Fuel & move your body to make it FEEL GOOD!
Listening to what your body is telling you can make major changes to how you feel internally and overall how you feel about yourself! It is so amazing to find foods that you love that fuel and energize your body as well. For me, eating more whole foods makes me feel a lot better, but everyone will have different ideas of the best food for them!
When it comes to movement, it’s all about what doesn’t feel super draining for you. Obviously, if you’re trying to obtain a certain build, you’re going to have to lift weights, even if you hate lifting. However, there are ways of going about it to make yourself feel much better. You can start small and do only one day a week of weight lifting and use the other days of the week for movement you love, anything like that!
You can accomplish all of your health and fitness goals while loving every second. Doing this is such an important part of self-love.
4. Create weekly affirmations
Growing up, I would have moms come into my dance classes or school and tell me all about affirmations and “telling yourself you can do hard things.” Hearing it so many times, I really never took in what they were saying and the importance of it. It sounded cheesy.
Looking back, I find that so funny! The very thing I use to make fun of in my head is one of the very things that has helped me with my self-love, confidence, and mental health.
Each week, I basically create a mantra for myself to repeat whenever I need to hear it. If I’m feeling particularly anxious that week, the affirmation will revolve around calming my mind. If I’m having financial struggles, it will revolve around me and my spending habits. There’s an affirmation for everything and anything that you could ever think of.
This week, I challenge you to find an affirmation that really resonates with you. For self-love you can say “I become more and more confident in myself with each passing second…” or something along those lines.
Affirmations are beyond powerful! Use them to build up how you feel about yourself.
5. Stop comparing yourself, get rid of negative thoughts.
When you stop comparing yourself to others, you not only feel better about yourself, but you become a less judgemental person. I think both of these things are crucial. It is going to be impossible to love yourself when you are caught up with judging others and how they are living their lives.
Comparison will NEVER make you feel like you’re enough. There’s always going to have someone who has something better or more pleasing than what you have. And for others, you ARE that someone. Comparing yourself is by no means productive, and will definitely harm your self-love.
Whenever you find yourself having intrusive thoughts, comparing yourself to a stranger, simply acknowledge the thought you had and realize it’s not productive and might not even be true.
This goes for ANY negative thoughts you may have about yourself. When you find yourself saying negative things in your head about yourself or others, it’s so important to recognize the thought and replace it with a positive one.
Sometimes I’ll see strangers and think “Wow, she has such a good body.” I’ll simply stop myself in these moments and say, “But, oh wait! So do I.” You can congratulate others on their accomplishments without bringing them down.
Comparison is the destroyer of happiness, and it’s very possible to avoid it.
6. Learn how to say “no”
I wish I could tell you all about how I’m an expert in this field. However, it is something I’m constantly working on. I believe it’s important to find a balance between saying yes to plans that will ultimately make you feel better and saying no when you know it won’t energize your soul.
Finding this balance may be hard, but you must always be keeping in mind that SAYING NO IS OKAY. It’s never the end of the world, even if someone’s feelings get hurt. Be kind in everything you do and all will be well.
Every single one of us has boundaries, and we should try our best to uphold them, even when it gets difficult. Something that may make it easier is to sit down and genuinely think of what your boundaries are and which ones are non-negotiable. Having a clear understanding of what you WILL say no to will help you in uncomfortable situations.
Learning your own boundaries is such an important habit of self-love!
7. Fake it until you make it
Sometimes on your journey for real self-love, you’re going to have days where you just aren’t feeling it. You’ll begin to notice little things that you might wish would change. But just because you’re having a bad day doesn’t mean your mindset should change.
Instead of using these bad days as an excuse to talk negatively about yourself, continue telling yourself how great you are. On the days I feel my worst, I will genuinely continue to tell myself that I’m a baddie, and how I’m capable of anything.
Strong and determined people are those who get through hard days, boring days, and good days, and still, sustain their habits of hard work. This applies to loving yourself as well. I fully believe you are capable, even if you have to fake it some days.
I’m so grateful for this platform that I’ve had to share my thoughts on wellness and self-improvement. Even as I’ve felt overwhelmed in my own life, I find writing as a space of comfort and an outlet for my own creativity. So thank you for finding my page! Thank you for hearing my thoughts.
As you head into your day, here is some self-love inspiration:
“Self-love will heal you, empower you, restore you, and open up new worlds within you and all around you. Self-love is the key to your mental, spiritual, and emotional health.” (https://averstu.com/2019/05/27/50-cute-motivational-quotes-for-girls-especially/)
Hope you have an amazing week, sending so much love!
If you want to keep learning and continuing your self-improvement journey, here’s a link to my latest post!
xo,
jaci lynn
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