Affirmations for Self-love

What is self-love?

The act of ‘loving’ is often focused on the outside world. We love our partner, our family, our pet and our hobbies. In most cases we can also explain why we feel that love.

On the other hand, self-love ‘obliges’ you to look on the inside. In order to value yourself, you need to be able to look at yourself with an open mind. It also requires letting go of judgments and expectations and seeing yourself as you truly are.

Self-love is:

• Looking in the mirror and being happy with yourself.
• Seeing yourself as being perfect, despite your imperfections.
• Daring to be yourself.
• Allowing yourself to deserve the world.
• Owning up to your own power.

Living the life you want to live (despite what other people think).

What is self-love good for?

Why is self-love so important? Isn’t loving yourself egotistical or narcissistic?

Ab-so-lute-ly not.

Self-love is the foundation of everything. The foundation of a more beautiful environment and an even more beautiful world. To explain this, we are going to use the cliché of the oxygen mask in the airplane.

In an airplane they always tell you that, in case of an emergency, you should always put on the oxygen mask firstbefore helping others.

The first time you heard this, you probably thought to yourself: ‘no, my children/partner always come first’.

However, you can’t help your children/partner if you faint due to lack of oxygen. That’s why you need to take care of yourself first before you take care of someone else.

Only when you control your own life, can you help others to get control of their lives. It works exactly the same way with self-love. You can only truly love someone else – unconditionally – if you love yourself first. You can only take care of others if you’ve learned to take care of yourself.

What’s the point in helping others when you’re actually too tired, moody, angry or sad?

Why self-love?

Self-love is the foundation of a happy life. It determines how your life will go. If you love yourself, it will change how you live your life. You will feel more beautiful, more self-confident, happier and more comfortable with your body. If you feel this way you will exude happiness and have a positive influence on the people around you.

To be able to feel this way you need to make decisions for yourself. This is difficult for many people because they tend to feel selfish when they put themselves first.

Let’s say you’ve worked hard all week. You get invited to a party but would prefer to stay at home, take a hot bath and go to bed on time.

Self-love also means saying ‘no’ and preserving boundaries. It doesn’t mean you’re egotistical, it just means you are putting yourself first. Eventually it will give you more energy, you’ll feel happier and you’ll be a nicer person all around.

It’s just a matter of practicing.

How do you develop self-love?

You can start practicing self-love by making plans with yourself, just like you would with other people.

How often do you meet up with friends, family or colleagues? You might schedule appointments like these in your planner and try to stick to your schedule. If someone else wants to meet with you on the same date, you would probably tell that person that you can’t meet because you already have plans.

But how often do you apply this to appointments with yourself? Perhaps you decided on watching a movie tomorrow night so you can relax after a hard day’s work. However, you allow an appointment with a friend to get in the way.

Self-love can teach you how to take the appointments with yourself just as seriously as the appointments you make with others. So you will be able to say to your friend: ‘No, I can’t, I already have an appointment’. You can watch the movie without feeling guilty and will have enough energy to meet up with your friend on another occasion.

Why affirmations for self-love?

Let’s say you have relationship problems and keep attracting the wrong men/women. You may have the tendency to look for the problem outside yourself:

• ‘How come I never meet the right man/woman?’
• ‘I’m always the one to have bad luck.’
• ‘I always attract the wrong men/women.’

Why not ask yourself this question: do I love myself enough?

Only when you truly love yourself, are you able to be yourself. Then others can love you for who you truly are. That’s how you attract the right people into your life.

Fact is that when you don’t love yourself, you could be pretending to be someone you’re not. You feel insecure, act differently, try to please the other person, or try to overcompensate. Result is that you attract a partner that suits this version of yourself.

You’re like a magnet. You attract what you accept and what you are. If you are not entirely yourself, don’t love yourself, don’t dare to be yourself, you will attract someone who fits that description. Someone who might be compensating for that.

But if you have a positive outlook in life and put yourself first, you will attract someone who suits you better. Someone who complements you in a positive way, who makes you feel more powerful.

This is how it works with romantic relationships, but also with other kinds of relationships, like friendships and customer relations.

What are affirmations for self-love?

Self-love is a journey that needs your utmost dedication and that’s something you can definitely train yourself to do. Being strict with the appointments you make with yourself is one way to do it. Another way is to use the affirmations for self-love.

An affirmation is a positive reinforcement. Short, powerful sentences used to influence your conscious and subconscious.

Loving yourself requires a different way of looking at yourself. It means trying not to be negative when looking at yourself in the mirror in the morning: ‘ooh, I look terrible’, ‘I really should lose some weight’, ‘I look so tired’…

By repeating positive affirmations for self-love (out loud or in your mind) you can change these automatic thoughts. Instead, you have positive thoughts when looking in the mirror: ‘wow, I look good’, ‘I love myself’, ‘I am powerful’.

What are some good affirmations for self-love?

Be kind to yourself. Trust your own power, talents and qualities. Take good care of yourself, your body and mind. It’s so incredibly important! The more you love yourself, the more love you can give to others.

Examples of affirmations for self-love:

• I cherish the love within myself and share it with others.
• I love myself.
• I am proud of the things I have accomplished.
• I love what I see when I look in the mirror.
• I treat my body with love.

Do affirmations work for self-love?

Affirmations for self-love can help increase your self-confidence and allow you to be kind and gentle with yourself.

Affirmations for self-love can be used very day. By repeating them regularly, you give them more power and eventually they become part of your system. You will start to have more fun, self-confidence and happiness and your relationships with others become more profound.

In the Meditation Moments app you can find affirmations for self-love which are accompanied by a powerful beat, so they really resonate with you. Try them now!