Self love practices
Self-love, self care, loving and respecting yourself...whatever you want to call it - is so valuable, so individual and I think can be an important influence regarding holistic health. It's something that I learnt to cultivate after I did some thinking about my self-worth, self-esteem, body image and other emotional stuff. My self-love practices change all the time because I am changing all the time, but I just want to share some of my general practices and explorations. Yummy food It sucks that sometimes relationships with food become complex, to the point that food becomes a source of guilt. In relation to self love I'm talking about eating food that makes you feel good during and after, food that nourishes your entire being and listening to your true desires. Eat food for you, not for some other person's/industry's body ideals – don't allow that to dictate your relationship with food, your body or your mind. Respect your desire, respect your hunger and respect your body. Feed your mind Surround your mind with things that nourish it. Read things that you want to fill your mind with and think about. Consider what you are feeding your subconscious. Customise your Instagram feed so that you are receiving only positive images and ideas. Read books, watch videos and look at art about concious sex, body love, health, empowerment and whatever makes you feel good. Body movement Again, come from a place that nourishes your whole being. That makes you feel yummy in your own body, not for the sake of 'getting skinny'. I have a habit of moving everyday but also respecting and listening to my body when I need to rest. My choice of movement is always changing for me. And I listen to what I desire. Right now I love Qi Gong, but ask me in a few weeks and I'll probably be into some form of yoga, tapping or HIIT. Another thing regarding body movement is practising some sort of movement that awakens you to your sensuality and makes you feel sexy. This could be concious masturbation, dancing or walking in nature. Talking to yourself Telling yourself how great you are, telling yourself something you want to manifest in yourself – confidence, sexiness, empowerment. Forgiving yourself if you do something embarrassing. I like to give myself a little rub on the arm and let myself know it's al good and doesn't matter. And checking in with yourself, seeing where you're at. Creativity and expression This one took me a long time to understand in myself. I grew up being praised for my creativity but went to university and forgot. It is apart of my identity and I think everyone's identity, and I stopped expressing it how I wanted to. Creativity is so important for my expression and communication. I'm not always amazing at verbally communicating things and my creative outlets let me explore and communicate what I cannot say aloud. After losing my creative identity I didn't think I was 'as creative' as others, therefore not a creative but I am and I practice some sort of creative activity everyday. Again, this is something that changes a lot for me whether it be through writing, music, cooking or dance. Presence I think presence is hard to practice but there are times when it is a priority. Sex, being with myself when I'm practising self-love and grounding, when I am with others whom are important to me and that I connect with, being in nature and during dance. Meditation, yoga and taking control of my breathing taught me to cultivate presence. This presence makes listening to yourself possible, in order to figure out what you want to eat, what body movement you want to do, if you need rest, nature, water, people etc. Lastly, I think presence is important in reducing dwelling on thoughts and worry – which are two things which disconnect me from myself Connecting with mama nature When living in the city, I think nature is an easily forgotten basis for health. Or an easily missed one. Nature for me is supportive, warming, allows me to be intuitive, in sync with myself, to trust, and become energised, and is my prime location for grounding myself. The ocean is important to me so my preference is being around water. It's where I can let go and be me, be fluid and feel as though I flow like the tide and experience cycles like the moon. But this isn't always the most accessible place to me. Though, if there's one thing I'm grateful for most days, it is having a backyard, so I spend a lot of time grounding myself there. All my most effective self-love practices come from me asking myself before I do it – 'Why am I doing this?'. If my drive is to 'look better', be better than someone, be perfect etc. then it's not going to serve me or my whole. I don't live for those things - they don't fulfill me. When I practice self-love I am always coming from a place of love, respect and honour for myself because I am worth that and if I can give that to myself without any external validation. It also allows me to receive love from others in a way that is uninterrupted by a dislike for myself because I know someone can love me, because I love me. It allows me to love back as well. When my mind is not worrying about things that are unfulfilling, I can put my mind and my being into what matters.