Self Love-key to Mental Health & Well-Being

And to justify the need and importance of self-love & appreciation, there is one quote which, at least for me, says it all. Mark Twain, “The Father of American literature, ” rightly said, “The worst solitude is not to be comfortable with yourself.

Even many psychology studies attest self-love and -compassion is key for mental health and well-being, keeping depression and anxiety far from us.

Various studies have shown that people facing physical and mental illness issues will feel free and relaxed with self-compassion and self-love.

And irrespective of any study or research, there is one point that will surely buzz our minds: self-love, somewhere down the line, sounds like a trait of a selfish person. And frankly speaking, if we see our normal lives, self-love is considered a trait of a person who wants to run away from his or her responsibilities.

How to Define Self Love & Self Care

So, to define what self-love is, I like this one study by Prof. Neff, Sbarra and colleagues on self-compassion. Access to self-love & compassion has three components which can entirely state the concept of self-love, and they are:

• “Self-kindness (i.e. treating ourselves with understanding and forgiveness)
• Recognition of one’s place in a shared humanity (i.e., an acknowledgement that people are not ideal and that personal incidents are part of the larger human experience)
• Mindfulness (i.e. emotional stability, which means calmness and composure, especially in difficult situations and avoidance of over-identification with painful emotions).”

So, more simply, in this study, I have seen tremendous changes in people’s lives with affirmations concerning our self-appreciation.

The affirmations below from Self-Love Rainbow are quite full in themselves for understanding self-love and self-appreciation ourselves.

Power of Self-Love!

When we practice self-love, we appreciate who we are, where we came from, and where we’re going. Self-love is a great step and the most important factor in helping people overcome their difficult life situations.

As we all know, and I am sure we all must have handled this situation, when we depend on another person for our happiness, surely, one day or the other, we all have to face disappointment. So the basic funda is don’t beg for Love, Affection or attention; give it to yourself.

For me, and I am sure for most of us, self love and its practice should always bring peace and happiness. So we must spend our energy at places and with the people who bring peace and calmness to our thoughts and lives.

Don’t compare your life with anyone and what you see from outside; you never know what other person is facing and dealing with behind the curtains.
It means consenting to your feelings for what they are and putting your tangible, emotional and mental well-being first.

So always take yourself and your inner peace and happiness as a priority. And never think and let other people feed you that “you are not good enough”.

But one myth about self-love persists in society: it is a high-profile thing, and normal people like a common person can never have these thoughts and can never achieve self-satisfaction and self-love.

And it is the base reality of our society or, to be precise, the middle-class society.

Self-love should never be categorized based on financial status. Rather, it is a state of mind and one’s way to live a peaceful and mentally healthy life. Self-love can sustain at any level of our lives, in any age group or class. It is taking care of your needs and not sacrificing your well-being to please others.

You may also read – https://himachal.blog/the-power-of-words-can-destroy-or-heal-ones-world/

In the end, I want to address all the parents that please teach their children about Self-love and self-appreciation. Sometimes it’s okay not to feel good about yourself, and it’s okay to discuss all your fears with your elders. And the most important thing is that Self Love is not at all a selfish thing. It’s just like a cycle. If we are happy and satisfied with ourselves only, then we can make our loved ones happy in a true manner.

So, teaching and discussions about Self Love are the two main factors that make self-love easier and quite acceptable in our society.

Wrapping Up

Finally, to practice self-love, start by being kind, patient, gentle and compassionate to yourself like you would with someone you care about and love. One must always remember that you cannot control other people’s negative, demeaning or not caring behaviors but what you can control is how you deal with them and whether you let them affect you or not.