Honestly, How Can You Love Yourself Better (just because)?

You don’t have to feel like you’ve accomplished enough or are worthy of all the affection in the universe to love yourself better. You can start right this minute, for no real reason, just because.

You can try just because it’s something new, and it might yield different results, and different sounds better to you right now. It’s actually a method of getting out of your own way.

What could casting aside your self-doubt, even for a minute, give you?

Loving yourself, too, is a journey.

Have you noticed how the future listens to what you do now? How a loving/grateful/joyful/hopeful approach sets the tone for where you’re going and how you arrive?

Ever noticed how shifting your attitude toward the outcome — the end goal, the deadline, the finished product, the expectation itself — shifts your experience of the accomplishment when you get there?

It’s like enjoying the song or practicing your deep breathing when you’re sitting in traffic. When you finally get home, you feel calm instead of frazzled.

If you infuse the journey with more love, your journey carries that energy toward and into the destination. And when you get there, there’s more to appreciate.

Since there was a steady stream of intention all along, it feels a heck of a lot better to stand in that place of accomplishment. You not only “made it” to that spot, but you made the whole journey a meaningful experience.

How glorious. How simple. Yet how not easy, because you need to be more mindful of how you treat everything and everyone right here.

Life isn't so much about the checkpoints as it is about how you live in between them.

And what about you? Are you not a journey?

Oooh, what if you thought of yourself not as a static being with definitive strengths and weaknesses, but an ever-evolving and fluid experiment?

Yes. Try that perspective on! Give it a chance to wrap itself around your daily to-dos, a chance to weave through your schedule and open your heart to whatever you’re doing in this one, precious, impactful moment.

What could change if you upped your level of love?

If you upped/deepened the love you shared right here, including the love you share with yourself, how would life change for you? For those around you?

Let’s see how this could play out:

• You take pause to take care of yourself when you feel burned out. Even seconds can make a difference. This gives you the energy to feel passionate about what matters to you, less of a victim to your circumstances, more in control of your own temple (body, mind, spirit).
• Your love for yourself (and this chance to be alive) pours into your surroundings. You're more comfortable letting people speak their mind or be themselves without feeling personally offended by their behavior. You can listen to understand.
• You adopt a more easy-going attitude toward your progress. You fill up on fruit salad at the dessert table and feel proud about it instead of deprived or jealous of what your friends are eating. You don’t give yourself a hard time for having a cupcake if you want to. You take your life, inside and out, one day (even one meal) at a time.

With love, you’re stronger inside than you once were.

Loving yourself is the decision to change the way you travel through your living experience, for the better.

How can you love yourself better?

Could you say something nice to yourself? (Open up a page in Sleep Affirmations or Morning Affirmations for daily inspiration.)

What if you didn’t say that hurtful thing on social media to that person you really, really disagree with?

What if you just let it go and gave yourself something more fulfilling to focus on, like going for a walk outside or giving your face a massage? (Feels SO much better! Pick up a copy of Sleep Rituals for 98 more super simple stress-relieving alternatives.)

. . .

Tell me:

What can you do, try, right this minute, to love yourself better?

Tell me in the comments. I ready every single one, and I'd love to know!

Loving yourself better sometimes looks like loving someone else better...

Sending love your way,

Jen