8 Self Love Exercises to Embrace Your True Self
Loving yourself can be one of the most difficult tasks you can take on. Learn simple self love exercises to love yourself more and embrace your true self in this post.
It’s so much easier to forgive and love the people you are close to as opposed to yourself. We set higher goals and expectations for ourselves, and feel greater disappointment in ourselves.
Studies show that when people consciously respond to questions about how they view themselves compared to others they have a tendency to respond positively, however our deep subconscious thoughts are actually 70% negative.
But here’s the thing – thoughts are just thoughts. Nothing more.
Accept your thoughts, feelings, and emotions without judgment and understand they have a purpose and a reason, but know that they don’t control you.
You deserve care and love – and that starts with self love.
So that leaves the question, how can you love yourself more?
This post is going to outline 8 self love exercises to embrace your true self.
1. Find the root of the issue
In order to begin loving yourself more, you need to find the root issue or what’s preventing you from loving yourself right now. This brings us to the first self love exercises.
There are a few ways discover the root of the issue. First, meditation is a great tool to identify repeated thoughts that keep coming up in your subconscious. Try incorporating mindfulness and meditation into your daily life.
Although during meditation you’ll want to refocus your mind to the present and your breath any time other thoughts come up, take notice of the patterns and common thoughts that keep coming up.
These thoughts will help you identify the issues that may be preventing you from loving yourself more.
Click here to read more about meditation for beginners.
Another great way to identify the root of what’s preventing you from loving yourself more is through journaling.
Whether you use a journal prompt or just write out your stream of consciousness thoughts, journaling will help you understand yourself and your emotions better.
Click here to read more about different ways you can journal.
In addition to journaling and meditation, spend some time just doing some self-reflection and see what comes up.
2. Remove things that make you feel bad about yourself
An important step in loving yourself more is to take a step back from things that make you feel bad about yourself. So the next self love exercise to boost self love is to reflect on the things or people in your life that cause your self confidence to falter.
Do you follow social media accounts that make you feel jealous or bad about yourself? Do you hang out with people who put you down? If so, try taking a step back from these things.
When you take in constant negativity from the things around you, it can be easy to start believing those negative things and accepting them as truth.
Focus instead on the things and people that make you feel confident and supported.
3. Forgive and accept yourself
This next self love exercise is so important!
Are there things you’ve done in the past that continue to haunt you? Forgive yourself for the mistakes you have made in the past.
Nobody’s perfect right? We all make mistakes, and that’s okay.
Accept yourself for who you are right now. Accept the choices you have made and who are you, because you have been trying to navigate life the best you can.
Turn regrets into life lessons and self-criticism into positive, healthy goals. Change the course for your future, rather than focusing on the past.
It might sound silly, but look at yourself in the mirror and tell yourself out loud, “I forgive you. I accept you as you are, because you are amazing and just trying your best.”
4. Make a gratitude list
Expressing gratitude for yourself and the things in your life is a huge step towards loving yourself more. Write down three things you are grateful for everyday.
Focusing on the positive things in your life will help you achieve an overall greater positive outlook on life. You’ll also start to focus on the things you love about yourself that you may be overlooking right now.
Fill out the form below to download the free Self Care Seeker Daily Planner that includes a spot to record three things you are grateful for, as well as spots to record your daily to-do list, self care, habits, etc.
As a bonus, you’ll also get a free weekly self care schedule, a stress management checklist, and self care journal prompts to incorporate self care into your life every day!
5. Make a commitment to your health
When you feel healthier and do good things for yourself, you will start to love yourself more again.
Incorporate exercise into your life where you can. Eat healthier where possible, choosing good foods to put into your body.
Set healthy and attainable goals for yourself that you can celebrate achieving.
Establish healthy habits into your daily life to prove to yourself that you care for your well-being.
Click here to read more about 9 Simple Daily Habits to Improve Your Health.
6. Set goals
If you don’t like something about your life, do something to change it. Set healthy and productive goals for yourself.
But – set yourself up for success when you establish these goals. Make them realistic to achieve.
No one is going to lose 20 pounds in a week. If you set an unrealistic goal like this, you will only set yourself up for being disappointed and hard on yourself.
Focus on only one or two goals at a time. By doing this, you won’t get overwhelmed by too many goals, and you can better devote your attention to those one or two things you want to focus on.
As you work towards your goals and reach them, you will feel a sense of achievement. Be proud of yourself – you are doing great things! Reward yourself as you make progress.
After you achieve your goal, set a new one and tackle it in the same way.
7. Discover your passions
A great way to love yourself more is to find what you are passion about and connect with that.
If you’re unsure of where to start, ask yourself a few questions:
- What were you passionate about as a child?
- If you didn’t have a job, what would you spend your time on?
- What’s on your bucket list?
- Who do you love spending time with? What do you guys do together? What do you guys talk about?
- Which issues are close to your heart?
- What makes you forget about everything else?
Use these questions as a guide, but realize it may take you a little while to really find what you’re passionate about.
Once you find your passion, engage in activities and surround yourself with people that allow you to connect with that passion.
8. Daily affirmations
The last self love exercise is to pick one or two daily affirmations to say to yourself each day. This can be fully customizable based on what you want to remind yourself of and reinforce in your mind.
Here are some ideas to get you started:
- “I love myself unconditionally and accept myself as I am”
- “I am proud of myself and everything that I have accomplished”
- “Right now, I forgive myself for not loving myself, and will release all negative self-talk”
- “My body is beautiful, and I will take care of it to the best of my ability”
Use these daily affirmations or your own to maintain a positive mindset and begin to love yourself more.
For more daily affirmation ideas to help you love yourself more, read this post for 35 daily affirmations to increase self love.
Those are the 8 self love exercises to embrace your true self.
Use these self love exercises to commit to loving yourself more. Keep in mind that changes don’t happen overnight. Be patient with yourself. Things may be difficult now but they will get better.
If you have been feeling down about yourself for awhile, consider talking to someone. Talking to a friend, family member, or a therapist can help you sort through your feelings.
Read more about dealing with negative self-talk here.
Comment below with your favorite daily affirmation to boost self love.
One Comment