Could you love yourself more? To fully love and accept ourselves, for most people, is a life-long journey. We see this in the choices we make. Our low self-esteem may have led to our choosing a bad partner, a soul-sucking job, a toxic friend, or debilitating behavior. But it’s okay. We learn and do better, or we don’t and repeat the same mistakes. We change when we put our needs, worthiness and happiness first, even before our love for someone. This is not easy. Often it takes us deciding to see a therapist because we are stuck, or we simply take a stand for ourselves because we are so fed-up with feeling lousy. Ultimately, it’s our will to say no more to our self-depleting ways that fuels the change. This change, from disempowerment to empowerment, builds our confidence. Now we start to make choices that nurture and support us. And it’s a personal triumph!
The quotes below will help inspire you to love yourself more. Following the quotes is a quick exercise to help you practice self-love.
1. “To be beautiful means to be yourself. You don’t need to be accepted by others. You need to accept yourself.” ~Thich Nhat Hanh
2. “Self-love isn’t always so poetic; sometimes it’s a nice big triple back flip kick in the ass. You’ve got to call yourself on your own nonsense; on the incredibly efficient way you can be self-destructive.” ~Steve Maraboli
3. “Give yourself a kiss. If you want to hold the beautiful one, hold yourself.” ~Rumi
4. “Love yourself first and everything else falls into line. You really have to love yourself to get anything done in this world.” ~Lucille Ball
5. “You can’t build joy on a feeling of self-loathing.” ~Ram Dass
6. “Love is the great miracle cure. Loving ourselves works miracles in our lives.” ~Louise L. Hay
7. “We all have the tendency to believe self-doubt and self-criticism, but listening to this voice never gets us closer to our goals. Instead, try on the point of view of a mentor or good friend who believes in you, wants the best for you, and will encourage you when you feel discouraged.” ~Kelly McGonigal
8. “When we give ourselves compassion, we are opening our hearts in a way that can transform our lives.” ~Kristin Neff
9. “Accept yourself. Love yourself as you are. Your finest work, your best movements, your joy, peace, and healing comes when you love yourself. You give a great gift to the world when you do that. You give others permission to do the same: to love themselves. Revel in self-love. Roll in it. Bask in it as you would sunshine.” ~Melodie Beattie
10. “Do not speak badly of yourself. For the Warrior within hears your words and is lessened by them.” ~David Gemmell
11. “To love oneself is the beginning of a life-long romance.” ~Oscar Wilde
12. “You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.” ~Buddha
13. “When you’re at peace with yourself and love yourself, it is virtually impossible to do things to yourself that are destructive.” ~Dr. Wayne Dyer
14. “You can’t punish yourself into change. You can’t whip yourself into shape. But you can love yourself into well-being.” ~Susan Skye
15. “Do you want to meet the love of your life? Look in the mirror.” ~Bryon Katie
Exercise to help you practice self-love and increase confidence:
Divide a sheet of paper into two columns. Title the first column, “Self-sabotaging habits” and title the second column, “New healthy habits”. Write down 10 behaviors that are stopping you from being your best self. Be truthful about how you make yourself feel lousy and limit your potential with these behaviors. Now think about 10 new healthy habits to help you replace the bad habit and write these in the second column. As an example, one self-sabotaging habit may be, “I beat myself up a lot over not accomplishing my goals.” Your new healthy habit could be, “I will say a positive affirmation daily that has to do with being kinder to myself.”
Reflect on these quotes and this exercise. Begin to think about how these negative behaviors are holding you back. Remember when we choose actions that support our mental, physical and spiritual well-being, we love ourselves more; it’s a certainty.
What is your favorite self-love quote above? Let us know why. We’d love to hear from you!
I think #5 is probably the best. I tend to lean toward putting others first, but I agree it’s hard to find real joy when you loathe yourself.
I agree that it is hard to find joy when you don’t like yourself. I think when we are preoccupied with self-critical thoughts and comparing ourselves to others, it disempowers us. But when we boost ourselves up with kind thoughts about ourselves based in our acceptance of who we are, self-forgiveness and self-love, we feel better and happier. Thanks for your comment!
I agree. What we say out loud (and in our heads) about ourselves too easily becomes what we believe about ourselves.