Hello!
How is everyone this week? I hope it was a week worth remembering, or at least a week not to hate.
Today, I want to talk about something I started doing recently. I was surprised that I was actually not doing it. It is ‘telling myself good things about myself/appreciating myself explicitly’. In other words, telling myself that I love myself in different ways. I think self-appreciation is a way of self-love.
I thought I loved myself enough. But when I checked if I was actually telling this to myself, the answer was no. You know how it is. If you love someone, it is better to say it. I started telling myself appreciative phrases too, both when I am alone and when I am with friends and family. For example, I can now overtly say what I am good at, whereas before I don’t think I was saying my skills or talents overtly. I believe I am good at understanding people’s emotions and empathizing with them, also analyzing them. This comes very naturally to me. That is a talent. But I never put it out that clearly for myself to hear. It is important to do that for two reasons: One is that it makes you feel better when you appreciate yourself (because we tend to criticize ourselves) and the second is that you become explicitly aware of your talents and skills so you can use them. Note to self: Be careful not to take this to the ego-istical levels.
Weird thing, when I first started doing this, it felt weird. Awkward. But I am still trying to keep up with it.
Then I thought, did I actually love myself before now that I was not telling anything good about myself to myself? I don’t know. Maybe I did not. Maybe I still don’t love myself enough, who knows. Maybe I tried to love people more than I loved myself, which does not work. I think we can love other people as much as we love ourselves. Otherwise, love becomes conditional. We love other people so that they can love us back, possibly in the same way and amount. When they don’t, we become extremely disappointment. When the starting point is self-love and self-appreciation, we already give ourselves what we need so we don’t need to try to take it from people.
Do you tell yourself good things about yourself explicitly? How does it make you feel? If you don’t, why do you think you don’t? Let’s discuss self-love and self-appreciation today.