Self-Love Month
Written by Sotonye Alamina
Why Self-Love is Important
January is self-love month. It is a time for people to practice self-love and really take the time to know themselves. Self-love is essential because it gives you peace with yourself and builds your self-esteem. You are making your own physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual growth your top priority so you will feel better and have your needs met. It’s not something that will magically happen one day, it needs to be built over time. Every time you practice self-love, you are taking small stepping stones to becoming the best version of yourself.
History of Self-Love
The history dates back to the 50s and 60s when the use of the word self-love was used during the early hippie ages. Love and peace were being promoted a lot because of the war happening at the time. It has also been used by different communities to uplift their natural features that were deemed as less than by others.
Some Ways You Can Practice Self-Love
There are a great variety of ways to practice self-love for not only your mental well-being but your physical well-being too. Some include:
Becoming more mindful. Meditate, journal, and speak positive affirmations about yourself. In your journal you can practice gratitude by saying what you’re grateful for.
Limit your social media time. Social media can be very damaging to your self-worth and esteem because it can seem like everyone has a better life than you. Once in a while, it’s good to take a long break from social media so you can work on yourself and stop comparing yourself to others.
Reward yourself when you’ve made progress. It can be easy to have extremely high expectations for yourself and be a perfectionist. This can be harmful because you will always feel like you are not good enough if you don’t fulfill those expectations. Instead, reward yourself for the progress you’ve made so far so you are more motivated to make more progress.
Sources
https://monatglobal.com/january-is-self-love-month-why-its-important/
https://www.bbrfoundation.org/blog/self-love-and-what-it-means
https://www.forbes.com/health/mind/how-to-practice-self-love/