How to cultivate self love, even when you may not be feeling it.
February is known as the month of love. But we’re not here to talk about love between you and your Valentine or your Galentines. This week’s blog is about the love you hold for yourself. Because if you cannot show up fully in your own self, loving yourself unconditionally, you cannot show up to the best of your ability for others. People always talk about self love as an act of loving yourself fully, and yes that’s incredibly important. But we want to highlight self love in a variety of ways, there may be days when you’re not feeling 100% whole in your body or you’re just down on yourself. That’s ok!! It’s not about being full of love and contentment every single day. Just like you don’t need to be happy every day! If you can get to a place where you are whole heartedly accepting of yourself, no matter what your mood may be that day, you are golden.
Self love comes in many forms. And journalling is a great place to start, it’s a way to develop a whole body and mind feeling, of self love. That’s why we’ve outlined 10 self love journal prompts that you can follow on your journey to building self love. Because yes, we all deserve that.
Why is self love important?
Self love means you accept yourself fully, and most importantly treat yourself with love, respect and kindness. It empowers us to take risks but also learn to say no to things that don’t serve us. Self love is key for our own mental health and also nourishes relationships in your life. Journalling can be a great way to put things into perspective. A time to reflect inward and dive a bit deeper into your thoughts and feelings. We all have off days, journalling just allows us to regroup and reflect on what we are grateful for and what we truly appreciate about ourselves. Self love can be a journey, but with consistent work at it, we all can get to a place of acceptance and kindness towards ourselves.
Tips for journalling:
When it comes to journaling, consistency is key. Whether you want to journal weekly or daily, making it part of your routine is important to make the habit last. Here are some of our favourite tips:
- Try to set a certain time each day/week to pull out your journal. Create a regular time in your routine. If you miss a day, don’t feel discouraged. Get back into the habit when you can.
- Don’t stress too much about being perfect – just write whatever comes to mind.
- Remember journalling is an act of self care, so be sure to give yourself the freedom to write your thoughts and feelings without judgement.
“One of the best guides to how to be self-loving is to give ourselves the love we are often dreaming about receiving from others.”
-Bell Hooks
1.What qualities do you love most about yourself?
2. When do you feel most confident?
3.Think of someone you really admire. What are 3 qualities they have that you admire? How can you practice embodying those qualities in yourself?
4.How can you work on trusting yourself more?
5.Make a list of energy givers + energy takers in your life. Brainstorm ways to include more energy givers and eliminate energy takers.
6.What would you say to your child self if you could?
7.Write a list of 10 things that make you happy.
8.What unhealthy habits would you like to let go of?
9.Where in your life can you let go of perfectionism?
10.How do you envision yourself and your life 5 years from now?
If you’ve made it to the end of this blog and have taken something from these journal prompts, give yourself a hug for showing up. Showing up for yourself whole heartedly. Like we said, self love can be a journey for many of us. It’s not necessarily something you’re just born with, it can take work and time to feel fully at peace in your body and mind. And not everyday is going to feel the same, we can assure you that. But what we do know is that taking time for yourself to focus in on the positive, will help us all get to a more positive place with our mental health.
If you’re looking for more journal prompts and ideas, check out our blog post “Journal Prompts To Calm Your Mind.”
Thanks for reading and learning with us both.
xo
Cornelia & Meg
