Self love

Hello beauties,

So today I really just wanted to spend some time sharing with you some of my favourite quote pictures from the internet. If this isn't your first time on here then you know that I spend (probably too much) time on sites like Pinterest, Tumblr etc looking at all of the different pictures. I literally hoard them on my phone and happily spend hours going through them all when I finally run out of memory on my phone.

It's a perfect way to put me in a good mood because I'm literally just surrounding myself with all of this positivity...and then the fact that it's so visually appealing is just fantastic! Because I've been having a few more struggles lately, I wanted to spend a little more time bathing myself with these little nuggets of wisdom. 



Here are some of my "self love"  Pinterest favourites;

In honour of these pictures, here are a few researched ways to help you love yourself a little more;

1. Eliminate self-criticism- this is probably the biggie out of everything; there's no way for you to be able to love yourself in any way if you're constantly criticising yourself for something or another. I'm a 100% guilty party because it was a pretty music ingrained part of my life, it was something I did at least a handful of times a day without even thinking about it. It takes a lot of hard work but you need to recognise your negative thoughts when you make them and then counteract them. i.e. "God I'm so fat and frumpy today" and change it to "my body is pretty awesome, it keeps me going and lets me do the things I love." 

2. Acknowledge your efforts- it's not an easy life, if you've done something that you're proud of then make sure you acknowledge it. For some time, just getting out of bed was an achievement in itself for me, I told myself it was stupid to feel proud because it was something that everyone else can do with ease...but that's not true. A lot of people struggle with getting out of bed in the morning, for various reasons. I was right to celebrate my achievements, no matter how small. 

3. Let go of worry- it's very easy to worry about every possible thing that can go wrong in life. but you know what? If there were no risks, if there was never anything that could go wrong then life would be terribly boring. Sometimes embracing the times when things don't quite go to plan is where we learn and sometimes end up in a better place than we could have been if things went right. Embrace the risk my friends. 

4. Trust yourself- there are times in life where we have sat back after something has gone wrong and we've said to ourselves " I should've listened to myself. I should've listened to that little voice in my head". That voice my friends is your intuition, and it deserves a little faith from you! 

5. Forgive yourself- I think everyone holds some form of resentment inside themselves about something that we did or should've done. The thing is, this kind of thing can fester and really make a negative influence on your life. Whatever happened is in the past now. that's the important thing. If it's something you need to make amends for...then do it, but the you need to forgive yourself for it. Nothing you can do now can change the past, we can only learn from it so accept the lesson that it gave you and continue with your life. 

6. Be truthful with yourself- there's no point in lying to yourself and saying that things are different than they actually are. A prime example of when I did this was when I told myself that I was "too fat" to be Anorexic. This was the biggest frigging lie ever and it makes me feel bad that I ever said this. No one is ever "too" anything. If there's something that you struggle with then it's there. End of story. Lying won’t make the problem go away. You need to acknowledge it and work to make it better. There is no magic cure so burying our heads in the sand isn't going to do any good. 

7. Make positive affirmations- starting the day with a positive little sentence really helps put things into perspective...and repeating it during the day a few times may sound silly but with regular use, what we tell ourselves really does have an impact. think about all that time you spend saying all of these negative things...now you believe them (or at least did for a time). I think that proof enough that it does what it says on the tin (metaphorically at least). the great thing about it is that you can either use someone else's affirmations or make up your own. it’s completely possible to customise it for your current situations. 

8. Express gratitude- it’s very easy in this day and age to feel very envious and jealous about what we don’t have. social media allows us to see first-hand what millions of other people’s lives are like so it’s very easy to say " why am I not that successful, or that pretty" or "why can’t I have that body?". I’ve found that it’s really important to find joy and be grateful for the small things in our own lives. it’s easy to overlook the people who love and care for you (because they’re always there so you don’t worry about what life would be like without them), or the home you live in, the food on your table etc. These are all regular things to people like you and I. I have grown up in a home where there have been times that meal options are toast only because of lack of money, or my mother has gone hungry because we couldn’t afford to feed everyone. because of this, I’m now aware of this happening (and it still happens no sometimes for us), and so I’m even more grateful for what it is that we do have and the roof that is still over my head. It’s truly a humbling moment. 

9. Nurture your dreams- on of the most fulfilling things I've ever found is the act of knowing what your dreams are and then going for them. A lot of people have told me than the idea of blogging and having my own business as a successful career is crazy. Be that as it may, I’m gonna give it my best damn shot! it’s what I enjoy doing and I love the idea of working from an office (preferably my own that I can make all beautiful) and where I can help people. I’m bettering myself through university in the avenue that I wish to take my career (psychology) and we shall see how I end up. Whether I end up working for myself or working in a small scale job, as long as I’m doing what I love then I consider my dream realized!

Hope you have enjoyed this post.

Love,

Louise x