Celebrate self-love this February

It’s February, the month we celebrate love. We spend so much time loving and caring for others but sometimes we forget about extending that love to ourselves.

When you get on a plane, they tell you to put your oxygen mask on first before you help others. And there is a good reason for that. You can’t help others when you are depleted.

This reminds me of a quote by Buddha,

“You yourself as much as anybody in the universe deserve your love and affection”

Self Love does not need to be an act of vanity. It’s also not in any means selfish.

Challenge yourself to make self love a devoted practice in the month of love.

A practice to be kind and gentle to yourself, doing loving things daily for yourself.

These small acts of love can be as simple as taking a mini-mental break, a luxurious bubble bath, waking up early to watch the sunrise, a mindful cup of tea or simply reading your favourite book.

Find something in this month to help you to connect with your mind and body through self-love.

Our level of self-love can be a great reflection of our relationship with food.

When we feel neglected consciously or unconsciously, it will most likely reflect in our food choices. Weh we don’t feel good about ourselves we forget to drink water or don’t take the time to prepare nourishing meals.

When we take better care of ourselves, we are less likely to overindulge

Food can bring us joy, connection, love and nourishment, it’s a powerful force.

It’s no wonder we lean to food when we feel depleted emotionally

Learning to love and accept yourself can be a long and turbulent journey. We live in a culture where we keep comparing ourselves to others, or what we see in mainstream and social media.

When we remove these judgments and just accept that our unique journey is that of our own, that’s when we can start making healthy lifestyle changes.

Here are five tips to bring self-love into the month of February

Indulge in some pampering

Make time for yourself even if that’s just five minutes. Find something that fills your soul cup and makes you feel uplifted.

Create a home spa experience, make your own face or hair mask, buy yourself flowers. After all, you deserve it, you do so many amazing things for others, it’s time to give some of that back to yourself.

Stop comparing yourself to others.

Your life, your body and your relationship with others and food will not be the same as anyone else’s.

While it’s motivational and inspiring to follow others on their journeys. It can make us feel negative about ourselves and encourage negative self-talk.

Instead, focus on things that uplift you, let go of the idea that you need to be connected 24/7 to your phone and your electronics.

Make space for yourself so that you can connect to your inner self and who you are

You are your own cheerleader and motivational speaker so draw inspiration from within instead of looking outwards.

Allow yourself to make mistakes

As a baby when you were learning to walk, you would have fallen hundreds of times. This did not discourage you from learning how to walk.

Thomas Edison made 1000 unsuccessful attempts in inventing the light bulb. Imagine if he gave up thinking, “Well, I’ve made a mistake. I should give up because this was a waste of time”

Mistakes are how we learn. So forget about the judgment, those negative voices in your head that say that you need to be perfect.

Make many mistakes. What can you learn from them? See failure as an experiment and get curious about how you can see mistakes in a positive light.

Let go of your worry and negative thoughts

Roughly 85% of the things we worry about never even happen.

Yet, our worries are what keeps us up at night.

Our thoughts affect our emotions, which then leads to how we behave. Maybe we overreact to something minor, we end up with a tub of ice cream at the end of a long day or we shut the world out in ways to cope with our emotions.

The way we regulate how we react to our emotions is by paying attention to our thoughts.

We have the ability to shift our thinking with love and compassion if we’re aware of what we are thinking. Pay attention to the automatic negative thoughts (ANTS) running like an old software in the back of your mind. We think we are enslaved to our thoughts but we have the ultimate control over our thinking.

Next time you identify an automatic negative thought, challenge the thought and then find an alternative more balanced thought

Self-love is not just hearts and rainbows, it’s not always an easy journey.

It’s no wonder we struggle to make time for self-love. However, when we do invest in ourselves, give ourselves love and devotion we can release some of that stress and anxiety that keeps us feeling trapped. Ultimately we will feel more satisfied in life and have more motivation.

As L’Oreal would say “You’re with it”

P.S If your relationship with food is feeling a little off in the month of love, I highly recommend tracking how food affects your mood. This can help you understand your eating habits and can be a small act of self-care in the month of February.

My food and mood journal is designed to help you understand your eating behaviours and ultimately restore a loving relationship with food.

You can get a copy of the food and mood journal here https://wholesomelifestyleproject.com/work-with-me/shop/