Ever Journey

Who do you love?

Tamara Al-halaseh
“Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.” —Lao Tzu

We all need love!

We all love others!

We love our children, our partners, our families our loved ones…

But how many of us really love ourselves?

Are you taking the necessary steps to love ourself ; and practicing self-love and self-care?

Practice self-love!

Yes love yourself!

Loving yourself by placing yourself central and coming from a state of love.

Loving yourself from a view of completeness and abundance.

Not from a place of Ego.

Egoism is placing yourself in a central state of fear.

Egoism is created by lack and scarcity.

How are you loving yourself?

From a state of abundance & completeness , or from a state of fear and lack?

How can you practice self-love?

Love yourself by practicing & meeting your self-care needs when it comes to your mind, body, soul and emotions.

If you can’t not care for yourself and love yourself, how are you meant to care for others and give love freely when you are in a state of lack and hatred for yourself?

What is Self-Care?

Self-care has been defined quite simply as “the set of activities in which one engages throughout life on a daily basis’’.

Examining this ‘set of activities’ more closely, we see that a number of activities encompass “a person’s attempts to promote optimal health, prevent illness, detect symptoms at an early date, and manage chronic illness.”1

Self-care includes taking good care of our physical health –by eating healthily, exercising, and sleeping well. It entails looking after our minds and emotions, which can take the form of setting time aside for activities that nourish our spirits and learning to understand how we can best replenish our energies.

If we do not practice basic self-care, we may simply burn out. We will be unable to relax and find outlets for our stressors. The less care we take of ourselves, the less we will have to give as it is said from ‘an empty cup, we cannot pour.’

Emotions & Self Talk

An important component in self-love and practicing self-care stems from an emotional perspective , and it involves how we speak to ourselves – also known as self-talk.

Our patterns of self-talk are all too often negative – we focus on preconceived ideas that we’re ‘not good enough’ or ‘always a failure’ or ‘can’t do anything right’. Our brains are hardwired to remember negative experiences over positive ones. We then replay these experiences and the negative messages in our minds, fuelling negative feelings (Jantz, 2016)2

Being aware of the conversations we have in our minds and how we talk to ourselves goes a long way in how we love ourselves.

Why Self-Care Matters

We all know that it is  important to take care of our mind, body, soul & emotions.

It includes eating right, reducing stress, exercising regularly, and take a time-out when you need it . Self-care helps you to stay healthy, happy, and resilient. Beneficial effects of self-care include improved well-being and lower morbidity, mortality, and healthcare costs.3

Self-love activities that you should practice , and the benefits there of  :

  1. Eat healthy We know that we need to eat right and our relationship with food mirrors our inner relationship with ourselves, and affects our mood. There is a strong food-mood connection4. Some of the best mood boosting foods are ginger, turmeric, fish, chia, flax, berries, green tea, Asian mushrooms, avocados, and broccoli.
  2. Meditate Meditation5 helps build mental resiliency and can help to manage anxiety and helps to calm the over active minds that will fuel of self-hatred, the more you mediate the more ‘in love’ with yourself you will feel.
  3. Exercise Research6 shows that exercise in particular helps you self-regulate, or control your emotions better, in difficult situations. Practicing exercise will help you feel better, and improves yourself worth and confidence..
  4. Get out in nature Research suggests even just looking at pictures of nature sparks positive activity in the brain7
  5. Take a social media break Scrolling through Instagram feels like a fun indulgence, but it’s the nutrition equivalent of eating a big bag of chips: satisfying in the moment, addicting, and leaves you feeling remorseful and maybe a little sick. It also can make you lonely8, which has legitimate health consequences.
  6. Breathing deeply Breathing techniques can help us relax and becoming more self-aware of our thinking pattens.9
  7. Smells Research suggests that citrus scents — orange essential oil in particular — can help slash stress and anxiety.10
  8. Tracking & celebrating your successes , we often do not know where to strat or realise how far we have come … using trackers to monitor our personal self care , wellness and fitness goals really help to show how we are caring from our selves and encourages us to keep ‘going’.

EVERJOURNEY Self-Care Planner.

Here is an editable FREE , printable planner developed by EVERJOURNEY than you can use monthly in order to track your helath, wellness and self care goals. Click on the link below to download the planner, you cant print it and start tracking your wellness goals and actions dialy! 

FREE Self Care planner developed by EverJourney

Self Care Planner

How about your start yourself love & self-care journey with a certified life coach at your side?

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References:

  1. Godfrey CM, Harrison MB, Lysaght R, Lamb M, Graham ID, Oakley P. The experience of self-care: a systematic review. JBI Libr Syst Rev. 2010;8(34):1351-1460. doi: 10.11124/01938924-201008340-00001. PMID: 27819888
  2. Jantz, G. L. (2016). The Power of Positive Self-Talk. Retrieved from: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/hope-relationships/201605/the-power-positive-self-talk
  3. Barbara Riegel, Sandra B. Dunbar, Donna Fitzsimons, Kenneth E. Freedland, Christopher S. Lee, Sandy Middleton, Anna Stromberg, Ercole Vellone, David E. Webber, Tiny Jaarsma, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0020748919302093
  4. Pschom, Food + Mood: A Natural Approach to Treating Depression https://www.psycom.net/depression-diet
  5. Pschom, Meditation can literarily change your brain https://www.psycom.net/meditation-change-your-brain
  6. Oaten M, Cheng K. Longitudinal gains in self-regulation from regular physical exercise. Br J Health Psychol. 2006 Nov;11(Pt 4):717-33. doi: 10.1348/135910706X96481. PMID: 17032494. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17032494
  7. Jo H, Song C, Miyazaki Y. Physiological Benefits of Viewing Nature: A Systematic Review of Indoor Experiments. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2019;16(23):4739. Published 2019 Nov 27. doi:10.3390/ijerph16234739
  8. Pschom,, Not So Social Media: How Social Media Increases Lonelinesshttps://www.psycom.net/how-social-media-increases-loneliness/
  9. 6 Breathing Exercises That Can Help You Relax in 10 Minutes or Less https://greatist.com/happiness/breathing-exercises-relax
  10. Greatest.com Does aromatherapy work https://greatist.com/happiness/does-aromatherapy-really-work#2 

Greatest.com Does aromatherapy work https://greatist.com/happiness/does-aromatherapy-really-work#2

By Tamara Al-halaseh