Does "Self-love" make you feel icky and weird?

I remember when I first learned about self-love I thought:

“What kind of hippie dippie woo woo bullshit is this?”

I had this idea in my mind that self-love meant ogling yourself in the mirror, winking and blowing kisses at yourself while you recited affirmations about how amazing you were.

I wasn’t down for any of these things. Affirmations felt so forced and the entire concept of loving myself after years of dieting simply seemed unattainable so I never bothered.

And I know I’m not the only one.

For most people the word self love feels uncomfortable because we were never taught how to do this. In fact if you’re a woman in today society you’ve been taught to do the opposite, because if you hate yourself there are many industries that can profit off of that self-hatred.

Loving myself felt awkward and weird so instead I focused on self-CARE.

Self care doesn’t necessarily mean spa days, massages and pedicures. In fact one of the best forms of self-care is to simply evaluate some of your daily habits and be honest with yourself.

Let’s say you’re very unhappy with the condition of your health and your body weight. Moving into self care requires you to be honest about how you got into the position you’re in currently.

It’s time to take an inventory of your daily habits.

Which habits make you feel really good both physically and mentally?

Which habits have you feeling tired, lethargic, unhealthy, and unhappy?

A habit that I have been getting away from is checking my emails first thing in the morning as soon as I wake up. I have been terrible for rolling over and grabbing my phone off my nightstand while I’m still in bed.

When I start my day like this I know that I move through my day feeling rushed and panicked.

So I’ve slowly been working on dropping that habit of checking my phone right away and adopting my healthier habit of drinking 1 litre of water while I journal first thing in the morning.

This helps me enter my day from a very grounded and present place. Which also makes me more productive because I’m not racing from task to task with a crazy squirrel brain.

Once you’ve taken a good look at the habits that are no longer serving you...drop them.

Let them fall away to make space for the things that make you feel really good.

Eventually you’ll run out of space for the things that

drain you and as a result you’ll operate from a place of health and vitality.

What do you need to let go of today?