First, Love Yourself

Thu, 08 Jul 2021 12:57:40 GMT

8 Ways to Fall In Love With You

We all like to make other people happy, its part of being a social creature. However, when you are focusing on people-pleasing and not caring for yourself it can cause stress and resentment. Not to mention that relying on other people’s approval for your self-esteem is a losing battle!

When you accept yourself and believe in your value you start to fall in love with you. Building your self-esteem not only helps you lead a happier, more authentic life, but also improves your relationships with others. Here are some tips to get you started:

1. Say “no” – Setting boundaries with others sends the message to them and yourself that you expect and deserve respect. We teach other people how to treat us.

2. Don’t compare yourself – In the age of social media its easy to get lost in comparing ourselves to other people. This can make you start to feel less than other people and feel you aren't doing as well as you should. Keep in mind we often only see the highlights of other's lives and forget they have some of the same struggles we do.

3. Know who you are – Invest in discovering or clarifying exactly who you are. What are your dreams, goals, values, likes, dislikes? If you don’t have a solid sense of who you are, it will be impossible to love yourself.

4. Be honest with yourself – Its hard to love someone when they are less than truthful or trying to hide things about themselves. The same goes for self-love. When we can take responsibility for our actions and clearly see our strengths and weaknesses we more easily love ourselves.

5. Don’t be too critical – Being honest is helpful, but being critical is not. While it is important to acknowledge areas we want to improve, don’t beat yourself up about them. Practice accepting where you are in your journey and loving your imperfections.

6. Forgive yourself – Sometimes we get caught up in a cycle of regret. We look at mistakes we made, opportunities we missed, transgressions, and we start to live in a world of regret for past actions. Hindsight is 20/20 and if you are caught in the past you aren’t living in the present. Remember that your past self did the best they could with the tools they had - cut yourself some slack.

7. Be ok with other people not liking you – I know, its inconceivable that someone wouldn’t like you – you know you’re great! But, some people just don’t mesh well together, and that’s ok. Respecting yourself means being authentic, even if that means someone may not like you.

8. Get rid of the haters – Staying in toxic relationships, letting a friend put you down all the time, whatever the situation may be, it isn’t healthy to be around people who do not treat you with respect. You are worthy of kindness, love, respect and you should surround yourself with people who recognize your worth.

Writing to manage depression, anxiety, and stress

Sun, 20 Jun 2021 12:52:47 GMT

Dear Diary...

I know, when you picture journaling you probably think of a teenage girl writing about her crush in a sticker covered book. We usually associate journals with high school drama and mood swings, not with something that can help us as adults.

While many teens do find journaling helpful in establishing their identity and dealing with new emotions, it can also be just as useful for anyone able to write! It's a form of self-expression that helps us process our emotions and can result in many positive outcomes for your life.

Journaling can look different for everyone and can help you reach a wide range of goals. You may use it to monitor your progress towards external goals, such as changing fitness habits. Or you may use it to help make the connections between your thoughts and feelings or clear your head. You may use a pre-made format or prompts to help with journaling, or you may just write freely whatever comes to mind.

Whether its anxiety, depression, stress, or goal setting, journaling can help you improve your life. Here are some of the science backed ways journaling can benefit you:

Help to manage depression

Journaling is not a substitute for therapy or medication for depression, however, studies have shown it can complement other treatments and bring additional benefit. It can help to release negative emotions and bring about a more positive frame of mind. It can also help to reduce brooding and take your focus off gloomy thoughts and situations.

Help to manage anxiety

Anxiety often comes about from problematic thinking patterns, but to change them we need to know what they are. Journaling can help you make the connection between these thinking patterns and your anxiety. Journaling also can help those with anxiety clear their mind, let go of negative thoughts, and be more aware of triggers for their anxiety.

Stress management

Keeping a journal is an excellent way to reduce and manage your stress. It helps you explore your thoughts and emotions, processes your experiences, and gives you an outlet to release your stress. It can also help you to problem solve ways of reducing sources of stress for you. Journaling can also be helpful in encouraging you to take action in making changes you want in your life.

Improve physical health

Most of us know that we are more likely to follow through with a plan if we have it written down and track our progress. Journaling can help you set diet and fitness goals and track your progress towards them. It can be very inspiring to look back and have a record of all the progress you've made so far on days you aren't feeling as motivated.

In addition to actively working towards physical health goals, journaling by itself can help to improve your well being and health. By helping you manage stress and difficult emotions, it also can help to reduce blood pressure, improve energy, and has been shown to help you sleep better.

S et and Meet Goals

Jour naling is a way for us to keep ourselves accountable to make the changes we want and put in the necessary work. It can help us to clarify our goals and make a step by step plan of what we need to do to accomplish them. It also gives us a way to document our progress towards these goals and can be helpful in problem solving obstacles that come up along the way.

I ncrease your gratitude

Consciously practicing gratitude has many benefits and journaling is a great way to help you do this. Gratitude journaling can take different forms, but the essence is to journal about things you are grateful for. It can help promote long term well being and people who consciously work to cultivate gratitude in their lives often report an increase in optimism and happiness.

I mprove self-awareness

Keeping a journal can help us to identify patterns in our life we may not have otherwise noticed. It gives us an opportunity for self-analysis and can help us more clearly see attitudes or behaviors that cause us problems.

beewelltherapy

First, Love Yourself

8 Ways to Fall In Love With You

Writing to manage depression, anxiety, and stress