Loving yourself

      

      Right from the moment we take birth in our mother’s womb, a strong bond of connection begins. What starts off as the first experience of love, enters into various molds as we move along the journey called life. From parents’ love to siblings’ attachment, from equation with relatives to network of friends, the magnitude of love increases by multiple folds along the path. While new relations develop with passing time, newer titles get added into our plot, showering more doses of unconditional love. A never ending supply that continuous right till the end, several new relations of spouse, children and grandchildren bring their own unique stock of love.

    While we are taught to respect, nurture, retain and enrich love in the form of these relations, essential chapters about loving ourselves are often deleted from the curriculum. As the blogger in me hunts for inspiration, creativity, motivation and purpose, I realized the relevance of this aspect in every area of life. 

     In the crucial, challenging, adventurous and difficult course of our story, we tend to ignore the essential task of loving our own selves. While fulfilling responsibilities, performing duties, maintaining relationships and valuing our loved ones, we exhaust all our time, energy, resources and interest. With this, as we enter into the continuous cycle of life, we are not able to include the phase of loving ourselves.

    Though loving ourselves seems to be the easiest action on earth, it is the most commonly ignored, forgotten, misinterpreted and assumed activity by each one of us. While we invest numerous efforts and lace them with dedication, devotion, trust and care for our loved ones, we fail to replicate it for our side of the story. Loving ourselves is not a complicated project that demands preparation, skills, plans and analysis, all it needs is strong will towards execution.

     Misinterpreted as a selfish involvement, loving ourselves is often correlated with incorrect behavior. Spending quality time with self, engaging in enjoyable activities, nurturing hidden talent and introspecting our route towards destination are beneficial factors that deserve our attention. Though taking care of inner mind and strengthening it with desired elements demand contribution from our end, balancing it with our worldly affairs is the key to success. Excess weight-age to one relation alone or excessive involvement into ourselves always can perform more harm than good.

    So, whether I have convinced you to love yourself in a novel way or whether I have voiced your belief through the blogger’s way, let us look at some of the means to love ourselves. After all, ideas give rise to possibilities and suggestions give way to improvements.

1.       Engage in ‘me’ time

Dedicated session for our hobbies, creative tasks, leisure, relaxation, physical fitness or enjoyment, spending ‘me’ time every day is extremely essential. While it may last for couple of few minutes or few hours, designing activities for ourselves offer lot of advantages.

Do not compromise that 10 minutes meditation or prayer session for some commitment outside, after all ‘me’ time is the ‘most essential’ time.

2.       Introspect and inspect

Thoughts and ideas play an important role in our development. Thinking about our future while drawing lessons from past can work wonders, this makes it essential to engage in introspection as a means to understand ourselves.

Talk to your mind as your best friend for life.

3.       Work for your own happiness

Happiness is a choice to be made by ourselves. Involving into tasks of interest and passion can color the canvas of our future. Drawing happiness from our own efforts offer the pure taste of joy, depending on others for content and love can lead to disappointment.

Indulge into your favorite food or enjoy your most loved movie.

4.       Break conventions, think out of the box!

While loving ourselves, engaging in novel fun-filled activities that are not followed by others or not recommended by the so-called society is absolutely perfect. Practicing our passion for dance, music, arts or any form can nurture love for ourselves.

March towards progress from a bathroom singer to a stage performer or dance like no one is watching, after all thinking out of the box is the first step towards loving yourself.

5.       Appreciate and pamper yourself

Though self-pompous nature is absolutely incorrect by all means, appreciating ourselves for hard work and success can motivate us towards further course of action. Occasional pampering with our favorite activities can energize us for the journey ahead.

 Pat your back or clap for yourself, as you are your best possible critic ever.

        Hope these few suggestions can ignite your thoughts about loving yourself.  Love yourself and spread the love, after all you are the dearest member of your own club!