5 Ways to Love Loving Yourself 201

5 Ways to Love Loving Yourself 201

Don’t be Frozen:

Loving yourself is like rescuing yourself from a frozen lake.  The numbness and pain you felt
is reduced and eventually you begin to see that you exist.  Then you begin to see an essence of yourself.
In “Essential Loving Yourself Quotes 101” by citing 6 quotes on love, we explored a process of unfolding self-love and beyond.

Not Loving Yourself:

Loving yourself, unfortunately is not natural and spontaneous. Often people had an unfortunate childhood.  They may have been abused, neglected or bullied. They perceived the world to be an untrustworthy, unfriendly and hostile environment.  NO child grows up loving himself in such a situation.
You have to learn.  First to practice to love.    You are going to be a student and love to practice something great. Then love to love yourself.   

This seems in the Western nations; especially in America is a big topic.  That …to love yourself.

Tess Marshall shares briefly her family of origin and her childhood difficulties in her blog,  21 Tips to Release Self-Neglect and Love Yourself in Action.

 These are very practical tips.   My tendency is to assign a set of categorical steps or strategies.
You can also think of getting back to home where you relax and love yourself.  There are 5 rooms or five areas where you begin to learn to love.  And love to love yourself.

5 Ways to Love Loving Yourself:

1] Seeing Things As they are:

Without resentment, anger or beating yourself up.  This is about accepting your situation, circumstances, people, places and things.  Acceptance doesn’t mean you swallow and ignore all these bad feelings you had.  All the things you suffered. 

It’s like removing a splinter.  It’s like removing your hand from a hot burning stove.  You don’t let things continue to infect you.  You don’t get continuously burned.  This acceptance is not easy.  You must practice. 

You also vow to yourself you will not play any part in similar situation that will humiliate, minimize and hurt you anymore.

2] Taking Care of Your Physical Body:

Eating well: 
Eliminate processed food,  and greasy, junk food,  Quit soda and artificial drinks. 
Preferably natural and organic foods.

Be kind to your body:  Get a periodical physical check-ups.
Spend intimate time with your loved ones, spouse or a partner.
Have fun time, recreational time
If you are alone, take a wonderful bath.  Learn to give yourself a massage.
Take care of you face.  Take care of your skin with good quality lotion or natural oil.
Get a massage session once in a while.  Learn healing arts. 

Exercise:
Take a walk.  Go to a gym.  Or do stretch exercises.  Take Yoga classes.

Drinking and Drugs:
What does this have to do with loving yourself?
If you need to drink or take drugs to lift yourself from feeling down and morbid,
you are dependent on these substances. 
Get professional help or go to a 12 Step meeting in your local area.

When you begin to take care of your body, your mindset will change.  Body and Mind are connected. 

3] Setting the Right Mindset and Taming Your Emotions:

There are many self-help books, personal development courses given online.  Or digital personal programs. 

When you can change your perception, your world will begin to shift.  Instead of reacting to things with anger and negative feeling and harsh words, you will learn to respond with more thoughts and kinder interpretations.  

By studying every day, you will nourish your intellect and thought processes.  You will get closer each day to become the person you want to be. 

Raw emotions will not run your life.  You will be able to replace negative emotions with positive emotions.  You will be aware of your thoughts and behavior more fully.

4] Cultivating Your Spiritual Being: 

Acceptance was discussed in [1]   If you want to come to understand the things as they are, you would need some spiritual tools. 

• “Letting go” … Releasing your obsessive thought, worries, anxiety, etc.
• “Be grateful” … Appreciate  what you have and count your blessings.
• “Forgive yourself and others” … Be gentle and loving kind and don’t hold your resentment.
• “Be compassionate”… Everyone is doing his best.
• “Listen to your Inner self” … You always have your own solutions inside of you.
• “Practice to serve others”… for a higher cause to elevate people, I don’t mean to keep cooking  for someone or keep giving money to someone…or working for your company without an adequate compensation…
• “Practice Humility”… This means to be willing and be open-minded  to receive great possibilities and wisdom.
• You will need to tap into a force beyond yourself. 
  Maybe this is counter intuitive as you want to learn to love yourself.  But you don’t want to be holding onto the part of you that has distorted sense of reality and conditioned by your negative experiences.
• Meditation and prayer will help you to improve your conscious contact with a power beyond yourself.  Napoleon Hill calls this the Infinite Intelligence.  This doesn’t not have to be God or Buddha, Spirit and Holy Ghost or some other religious figure.
• Saying affirmations will inspire and uplift your spirit.

If you study personal development, you will come to learn about the Laws of  the Universe.

And the Success Principles are based on the Infinite Intelligence of the Universe.

Practicing with many spiritual tools, you will be able to get away from that dark dungeon of your soul and get to experience a brighter future and a greater vision for yourself.

5] Loving Your Culture and Heritage:

Love your heritage.
Love where you and your parents came from.
There are many downfalls in cultures.  {Today you will not let this deter you from  appreciating your culture.}
Today love the richness of the culture.
The part that make you proud.

I am Japanese.  I was born and raised in Japan.  I don’t mean that nationalistic chauvinistic sentiment.    I love my heritage.  I love Japanese culture.   That is definitely a great influencing factor of who I am.

In my blog, Meaningful “Who You are” Not “What You Are Quote,

we discussed it is important to identify “Who you are,”  and not “What you are.”

‘Loving to love’ shows an emphasis of “loving yourself” begins with a practice in these 5 areas.

You are not focused on ‘yourself’ like as if you are going to love your dog or a cat.
You are going to practice and change your daily life in these FIVE areas. 
You are going to love to practice and study daily.

Journaling is a great way to record your progress.

This also allows you to reflect on your deeper feelings.

Reflect on your life calmly. 
Blogging will be a far more powerful way to write about what transformations you are going through.
You will  share with others.  Nowadays, one can share on social media.  You may be helping so many people you don’t even know.

Daily Action Counts:

Each week, make a list of what you would like to work on from these Five Areas,
and blog 3 or 4 times a week if not daily.

Thousands of people are using social media sites to  express themselves and communicate with others; and even promote their businesses. 

To Your Happiness and Abundant Life,
Yukiko Iino