Self-Love with Sacred
Watch the full Talks With Doc’s video on Self-love by clicking here.
Summary:
From Dr. Karen:
Self-love means that you accept yourself fully, treating yourself with kindness and respect, while at the same time nurturing your growth potential and wellbeing.
It is about how we perceive ourselves, the feelings we have about ourselves, and the actions we take to promote these feelings of acceptance and self-respect. It is not about thinking that we are perfect. But rather accepting ourselves unconditionally despite any perceived imperfections while being at peace with who we really are. Now this doesn’t mean that we can’t have goals or work on ways to improve our imperfections. But rather it is about allowing us permission to embrace these challenges by beginning with self-care and slowly build up to self-love.
So, what is the difference between self-care and self-love? Self-love is focused on the thoughts and feelings we have about ourselves whereas self-care focuses on our actions and all the things we do to care for ourselves physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually. These are actions that support us and make us feel better like reading a favorite book, doing a yoga or meditation practice, relaxing in a bath or getting a massage. By practicing self-care, you will ultimately promote self-love which generates an overall positive feeling.
Here are some tips you can do to practice self-love:
Releasing negativity from your life: it’s time to purge anything or anyone that causes you stress, anxiety or pain and which no longer serves you. You deserve to be treated with the utmost respect and always spend time with people with that will support you, your mental health and growth potential.
Embracing forgiveness: Whether it's forgiving someone else or yourself, practicing forgiveness will help you move on from things that might be hard to let go of. And once you do release, you will go through life with an ease you didn't even know existed.
Practicing Gratitude: A 2011 study published in the Journal of Happiness Studies found that writing down words of appreciation and gratitude over a 3-week period can improve measures of depressive symptoms, improve life satisfaction and boost happiness. Try keeping a gratitude journal. In a notebook and keep a record of the things you are grateful for. try to write down 3-5 things each day. You could also try a gratitude journal app, such as Gratitude.
Laughter: Laugh as much as possible. Watch a funny movie, videos or what else that makes you giggle. According to a 2017 study in the Journal or Neuroscience laughing releases endorphins which naturally elevates mood. These are the same feel-good chemicals released when you exercise.
Have a strong network of support: We can learn to love ourselves by starting with self-care and slowly build this up. However, we don’t have to do it alone and it is important to have support from our friends, family or even professionals who have experience in this area.
Embrace the journey to finding out who you really are and enjoy every minute of it.
From Dr. Kelsey:
Here are some at home self-care tips to help you on your self-love journey.
Elevate your water:
Add small infusions to your water to help with taste but also add health benefits. Cinnamon aids weight loss by boosting metabolism, lemon or lime wedges not only taste nice but increase your immune system and help clear your skin, cucumber can help decrease puffiness and inflammation to help your joints, adding other fresh fruits and berries is an easy way add natural vitamins and antioxidants.
Take a clinical grade probiotic to help balance your gut microbiome. We recommend the brand Garden of Life.
Go grounding outside to soak up the Earth's natural negative ions.
Add some micro-movements throughout the day. This can be gentle range of motion exercises or the exercise YTWL as described in the video.
Yoga before bed can help you settle in and relax for a more restful sleep. Yoga with Adriene is free on YouTube.
Take an Epsom salt bath to help relax and also detox.
Have a skin care routine- especially SPF and a moisturizer.
Heart acupuncture points to hit for self-love:
HT 3: Also known as the joy point- stabilizes spirit and disposition. It is located on the inside of the elbow.
Hope these little additions to your daily routine can turn your day into a self-love ritual. - Dr. Kelsey