I admit that I was completely baffled when I first heard about self-love a few years ago. Self-love sounded like a thing that was impossible and that I would never be able to achieve. But after thinking about it a little longer and learning more about the state of mind that comes along with it, my perspective of self-love changed. Because the more I thought about self-love, the more reasons why practising it would benefit me started appearing in my head.

What is self-love?

Self-love can be defined as accepting and celebrating one's being. Self-love is more than just following a list of goals in a journal, cultivating a positive mantra, or dreaming of how you want to feel. Self-love is the internal richness that comes from loving yourself, accepting your flaws, and embracing your strengths. It is accepting yourself unconditionally, having compassion for all you have done and will do, and seeing the world through loving eyes. They say: “You cannot be great if you have not achieved self-love.” And this applies to your life, work, and business in more ways than you might imagine. Improving your self-love will allow you to improve every area of your life.

So, let's take a look at the 13 benefits of practising self-love for your well-being:

1. It gives you a feeling of security

When you love and accept yourself, you realize that you are perfect exactly as you are, and nobody can take that away from you. That is why self-love is a great place to start in dealing with any insecurity you may have.

2. It allows you to access more love in your life

When you know you are loved and accepted unconditionally, you open up to the possibility of giving and receiving the same love, no matter what. This creates a ripple effect within and surrounding you and draws love and acceptance from all around you.

3. It helps you feel good about yourself

Self-love makes you feel great about yourself, and when you feel good about yourself, people naturally tend to gravitate toward you and even start to like you more.

4. It helps you deal with difficult emotions

Self-love helps you to deal with many difficult emotions, such as anger or anxiety and prevents you from feeling like you should hide away and let them build up. As long as you practice self-love, you can deal with even the most negative thoughts and emotions and feel good about yourself no matter what.

5. It helps you show up in the world fully

When you love yourself, you show up in the world fully with your unique talents, abilities, and skills. You go the extra mile and go after your goals. You do not hold back or apologize for anything.

6. It improves relationships

When you love yourself, you tend to put others before yourself. This, in turn, makes you more approachable, and so others will find it much easier to relate to you. As a result, you improve your relationships through love.

7. It increases your productivity

When you love yourself, you become more productive, energetic, and happy. You take ownership of your life and actions and work harder to achieve your goals.

8. It gives a sense of goal pursuit

When you love yourself, you want more out of life, so you crave to learn new things and better yourself. This, in turn, gives you a sense of goal pursuit.

9. It provides unconditional support

When you love yourself, it enables you to provide support to your family and friends without feeling that you have to do anything in return. You know that nobody is perfect and so, therefore, do not expect perfection from yourself too.

10. It helps you to be less judgmental

When you practice self-love yourself, you tend to accept people for whom they are instead of judging them based on their personality or behaviour.

11. It helps you to be mindful

Self-love enables you to be aware of your feelings and thoughts and helps you understand yourself and what you feel and think, which is a huge step towards a successful healthy life.

12. It helps build a more positive perspective

When you are happy in your skin, you are more motivated to live a more positive life because you are also less likely to compare yourself or criticize those around you.

13. It allows you to forgive yourself

When you hold a grudge against yourself or constantly compare yourself to others, it is impossible to love yourself truly. After all, you constantly compare yourself to a continuously changing person, and you can never catch up. Practising self-love allows you to forgive yourself and move on from your past, no matter how bad it may be.

A Friendly Reminder:

Self-love is a beautiful concept. You don't have to wait for someone else's approval to feel good about who you are. But if you don't feel like you're there yet, that's okay. You may start slowly with your self-love journey: take it one day at a time. You will love yourself more if you consistently remind yourself that you're doing your best and make the best choices when possible.