Do you struggle with self worth? Do you feel like sometimes you just aren’t good enough? Have you ever wondered what life would be like if you could learn how to love yourself again? There have been days where I would tell myself that I was worthless, that I would never find happiness within myself again.
If you didn’t know, I am a college dropout and for the longest time I felt stuck in my life. My confidence was non-existent. Most days I felt like a failure. One day I decided it was time to change my attitude and mindset. Since that day, I have fallen in love with myself again. Not only has this helped my mental health, but it’s also allowed me to pursue my passions whole-heartedly! Today I want to share the best 9 ways to love yourself again.
1. How to love yourself through positive affirmations
I am a huge fan of affirmations. There’s just something about them that make me feel good! Try to start your day off by writing down 10 positive affirmations. You can even try to write down 10 things you love about yourself too! This is a great way to not only start your day on a positive note, but to reflect on the things you truly love about yourself rather than focusing on anything negative.
Some of my favorite affirmations:
- I am worthy
- I am strong
- I am beautiful
- I am smart
- I am capable of achieving greatness
I even have a list of more affirmations here.
2. If you want to love yourself again, stop comparing
I think it’s safe to say that we ALL play the comparison game at some point. Can you admit that you have looked at someone else and said “wow, I wish I was as pretty as her.” OR “wow, I wish I had a nice car like that.” In order to love yourself again you need to stop comparing and start appreciating.
It’s so easy to accidentally compare yourself without even realizing that you are! BUT, comparison steals your peace and happiness. It also makes you feel like you aren’t good enough when you really are! It fills our mind with self doubt.
You also have to remember, we don’t all walk the same path and we all have gone through some crap to get where we are today. Be proud of yourself every step of the way.
3. It’s important to do things you love
If you want to love yourself again, start doing things you love and enjoy! Growing up I always loved to go hiking with my family and spend time enjoying nature. Something about nature is so freeing to me. I also loved to write! Now that I am older it’s harder to make time to enjoy doing things I really love. It’s important that I make time for the things I love to do. Starting my blog has played a huge role in loving myself again.
4. Have self care dates (by yourself)
I am a huge fan of self care and I think it’s important when it comes to learning how to love yourself again, to practice self care. One thing I like to do is have self care dates by myself. At first I felt strange going on dates by myself. In fact, I even felt embarrassed. BUT, taking these self care dates alone helped to build my confidence and helped me be okay with being by myself. I love who I am and I love spending time by myself.
What dates can you do by yourself?
- see a movie
- go out to eat
- take a walk or hike
- go to the beach
- go for a run
- go to the gym
- take a weekend getaway to your favorite place
- go to the spa
- give yourself an at home spa day
These are just a few ideas!
5. Eliminate your limiting beliefs and change your mindset
When I was fighting my darkest days, my mindset was at it’s worst. Being a full time waitress and college drop out made me feel stuck and worthless. I felt like I didn’t have real purpose. Constantly I would say things like, “I will never be successful.” or “I will never find a job I love, I am not qualified.” Or I would say things like, “Why should anyone love me? I am worthless.” The more I repeated those words to myself, the more I started to believe them.
I encourage you to change your mindset and reword your thinking. You truly are what you THINK you are!
Try:
“I will be successful and have a job I love.”
“I am not worthless and I am worthy of love.”
“I am capable of having a life that I love and I am qualified to score my dream job.”
Believing in myself and in my abilities was a complete game changer. I started going after my dreams of being my own boss and being a full time blogger about 2 years ago. Since changing my mindset, I have been able to accomplish this dream. I now blog full time for a living and work for myself.
I am telling you, a positive mindset is the BEST mindset to have.
6. Celebrate all your wins, both big and small
I can’t stress this enough. It’s so easy to feel like we aren’t making any progress and it can be extremely defeating. BUT, when we take a step back and actually realize the progress we’ve made since the beginning, it can be eye opening. In order to love yourself again, make sure you are celebrating ALL of your wins!
Sometimes you need to be your own cheerleader and there is nothing wrong with that! Celebrate all wins, both big and small! Every step of the way is worth celebrating! It can make a huge difference when it comes to your self esteem and falling in love with yourself again.
7. Love yourself through journaling
As you know, I LOVE to write. Journaling daily can really help you reconnect with yourself. It also brings out those inner thoughts that might be holding you back or blocking you from loving yourself completely. Different journaling exercises can help you let go of all the negativity and really learn how to love yourself again.
I put together a few journal challenges here:
8. Try something new and do something that scares you
Have you ever been wanting to try something new but maybe fear held you back? It’s time to become fearless! I find that trying something new can create this new sense of “Damn, I am brave.” There is something so empowering about facing your fears! I encourage you to do something that you are afraid to do!
9. Practice healthy habits daily
I will be the first to admit that my habits weren’t always the healthiest. Once I started to change my habits like drinking more water, get enough sleep, be active when I can. These little changes in my everyday routine made a huge difference when it came to my mental health and feeling happier each day. I also started to feel good about myself and really love who I am.
I hope you found these tips helpful. Always remember, you are worthy, you are capable of achieving your wildest of dreams, you are beautiful and you have a purpose and you deserve to love yourself completely.
I definitely needed to read this! Thanks for this awesome post. 😀
Thank you so much! Happy to help!
Good reminders and so important to not get stuck in ruts!
So glad you liked them! Thank you!
I absolutely loved this post! Loving ourselves always seems to be something we put on the back burner and its something we as individuals need to keep upfront in order for us to fully enjoy this life we have been given. Amazing blog post and Ill def be saving this for future reference!
Yes exactly! And thank you so so much!!
Amazing post! “I am worthy” is my favorite affirmation, because it’s true! We all are worthy of our dreams.
Yes exactly! And thank you so much!
I love the idea of self-care dates! I like exploring new coffee shops while traveling. Drinking coffee and reading a book in a nice coffee shop is one of my favorite things 🙂
Thank you so much and I love to that too! It’s much needed sometimes!
Learning to love spending time by myself has been a game changer in my self care/emotional health journey! I like your advice of changing your limiting beliefs and rewriting your inner narrative!
Thank you so much and so glad you agree!
Really interesting! I can relate to this as during my marriage, I felt unworthy for many years due to rejection. I love positive Affirmations, speaking positive has helped me to change my mindset. Thanks for sharing.
So sorry you felt that way but so glad you are able to find peace again. It takes time but keep being kind to yourself! You are worthy of love!
I take Myself out a lot a massage a run alone time to a coffee shop to people watch I’m loving myself sooo much the older I get I’m a happy girl but I’m really experiencing joy each year I get Older!
I love that so much! Solo dates are the best dates!
Loving yourself is so important! We often feel like we aren’t good enough for a person, job, situation, or something else. Once we find our self love and self worth again, we can become unstoppable!
So glad you agree and you are absolutely right!!
I was feeling so down and depressed especially because I’m going through a break but I’m glad I read your story, it’s helping me get through my darkness
So glad to hear this. Sending positive vibes your way. You are not alone!
I absolutely love this post! I have been single for 10 years and it was hard learning to be alone. I use affirmation daily and don’t know where I’d be without them. You have a great blog and will be following.
I have just started blogging, only 1 month in, and find so much joy in it. I hope that you will check it out.
Thank you so much Tammy! That means a lot to me! Good luck on your blogging journey! Will definitely check it out 🙂