SELF-LOVE
Oscar Wilde said, “To love oneself is the beginning of a life long romance.” However, in this incredibly competitive society of ours, how many of us truly feel good about ourselves? Do we even know what it is to love one self or where to start? Yes perhaps some of us know how to love others, but are we capable of seeing the good in ourselves? The worth? The value?
I can tell you now personally that I find it easier to judge or criticize myself appose to being able to see my self-worth. Often more than ever I can turn out to be my worst self-critic as appose to my own best friend leaving small room for progress. “So what’s the answer? To stop judging and evaluating ourselves altogether. To stop trying to label ourselves as ‘good’ or ‘bad’ and simply accept ourselves. To treat ourselves with the same kindness, caring, compassion we would show a good friend, or even a stranger for that matter. “
Unfortunately some of us have preconceived ideas and thoughts about this ‘self-love’/self-compassion concept. Often people think by trying to keep a sense of self, or in attempt of building a sense of self; it start to look like narcissism, self-absorption, self-centeredness etc. This stops us from trying to love who we are and instead, we easy to fall prey to a slow self-destructive process.
So where do I start? Loving myself? Building a high self-esteem? Over the next couple of weeks we will explore the concept of self-love and start working towards having a loving relationship with ourselves.
The following weeks will consist of;
Week 1: Self-love getting started (questionare)
Week 2: Self-Compassion
Week 3: Combating negative self-talk
Week 4: Self-soothing