Discover How To Love Yourself

What does it mean to love yourself?

Discovering how to love yourself is an essential part of good mental health and emotional wellbeing.

Loving yourself is also demonstrated by the ways you take care of your body, by eating well, sleeping well and giving yourself the things you need to thrive, to grow and to be successful and happy.

Loving your self is one of the first and important steps to a successful loving relationship.

It might seem that to love yourself is so basic that it is easy and natural. However, in my many years as a counselor and a coach, I have found that for many people this is a challenge.

There is a lot of glamour and illusion about what it means to love. That is true when it comes to relationships and especially true when it comes to loving yourself. Loving yourself, honoring yourself and respecting yourself are foundations of a loving and healthy relationship.

It is said, that before you can love someone else you must first love yourself. So ask yourself what you can do to learn to demonstrate self-love if you realize it lacks in your life. Take the very first step to understanding and acknowledge that you are worthy of being loved, exactly as you are. In one of my previous articles “The Greatest Love”, there are eight affirmations you might find helpful in this process. (I have provided a link to that article at the bottom of this article.)

Relationships with others, especially romantic relationships, all too often fail to result in the fantasy of “happily ever after.” To sustain a real relationship you need to establish realistic boundaries of what you are willing to give in a relationship and what is not acceptable in a relationship. Knowing yourself, respecting yourself and being true to yourself in a relationship is vital.

Shakespeare said it well in Hamlet with Polonius’s advice to his son.

To thine own self be true. And it shall follow as the night to the day, thou can’st not be false to any man.

Being true to yourself and honest in your agreement’s with loved ones are critical.

My grandmother once gave me the sage advice:

Don’t put up with the first day in a relationship behavior you are not willing to accept for the rest of your life.

When I think of the times and ways that I failed to heed that advice, I see many of my life’s mistakes that could have been avoided in friendships, in romances and even in business relationships.

How To Love Yourself

Integral to my grandmothers advice is to both know and respect yourself, and honor and love yourself, as someone who is both deserving of love and who loves themselves.

It is wise to honor yourself, know yourself and then, in any new relationship consider what is acceptable to you. In this way, you are true to yourself, and you are beginning a new relationship open to a future built on honesty and mutual respect. This establishes a context in which you can learn to love one another, grow and thrive together.

A part of learning to love yourself is letting yourself both accept and receive the love that is all around you. There are so many ways that you can demonstrate your love and so many ways that love can enrich your life. Love is something that spans all of your relationships. It guides your relationships with friends, with family, and lovers. It is integral to your relationship with the Divine.

Love is available for you. Open your life to it. Love is all around you. Let yourself accept the love that is coming to you, from relations and God. Your Soul is an unlimited source for loving yourself. I have found you can open yourself to that love and receive that love directly through meditation.

Love truly makes the world go around and is fundamental and reflected in all of your relationships. Loving yourself is a guideline you can use in all of your relationships.

Accepting and appreciating Divine Love affirms that you are a spark of Divine Light, and you are worthy of receiving love. Using the love of God and the love that your Soul brings to you, demonstrates to you what it means to love.

Having received love, you are also a source for love in the world.
– Genevieve Gerard

An essential element of your ability to love is also your ability to love yourself. In the love that you give, you can be a blessing to others. Ponder on this.

When you love someone, you value and appreciate who they are and accept them. The same is true about loving yourself. You are unique and special. Appreciate, accept and enjoy who you are.

You are not perfect, but there is no reason you should be. Treat yourself with the compassion you would show to another. You have made mistakes in your life. Forgive yourself. There are faults and issues you are striving to resolve. Be gentle with yourself.

You are in an ongoing process of growing, transforming and becoming more and more of the person you are meant to be. Support that in yourself, for yourself.

Life is all about learning lessons. No mistake is meaningless if you have learned from it and grown from it. When you show patience and compassion for yourself, it becomes easier to show patience and compassion to others.

By forgiving yourself, you become a more forgiving person. The compassion and grace that you open up to become available in all of your relationships. As you learn to accept and respect yourself, you are also learning how to accept and respect others.

Learning to love yourself is an ongoing lesson in how to love, that makes you a better person. By loving yourself, you are demonstrating the skills and behaviors that are needed to demonstrate your love to others.

Ultimately, you know love because God loves you unconditionally and this love is shown to you with unlimited forgiveness, profound grace, and acceptance. When you let yourself accept and receive this love you are empowered to be a force for love in the world. You become a better person, a happier person and a more successful person.

You can be love, give love, demonstrate love with respect and honor for both yourself and others. The more you love, the more joy that comes into your life and the happier you become.

Namaste,

Genevieve

The Blessing of Love on all that you do!