Loving How you Look vs Loving Who You Are

Alright readers, it's Election Day and today we're going to be talking about loving ourselves because today it's one of the best things you can do for yourself. 

There are two main ways to love yourself, the first is by loving how you look and the second is by loving who you are. Now, you might be thinking that one of these two ways is more important, right? Well, let me tell you a secret, they are both equally important, so I'm going to give you some starter tips to get you going on each. 

Loving how you look. 
1. When you are in the bathroom/in front of a mirror, look yourself in the eyes and find one positive thing about your body, your physical being
2. When you have a bad thought ie "My thighs are fat" I want you to stop, take a second, breathe and then rewrite that thought. Something like "I am beautiful", "I am strong", "I am handsome", anything that brings you back to a loving self. 
3. Don't repeat other peoples comments to yourself, they simply don't deserve your attention. If you find yourself thinking about what another person said about you I want you to redirect that thought. "yes, and" statements are really helpful here. "This person said _____ about me, yes, AND I think ______ about myself"

Loving who you are:
1. See number one for the previous section, EXCEPT I want you to come up with statements that apply to who you are, ie characteristics and statements such as, "I am capable", "I am compassionate", "I am brave".
2. I want you to let go of the fact that you have to be perfect, in every situation that you find yourself striving for more when you don't have to I want you to stop, take a breath and then let it go. 
3. When you have a negative thought I want you to accept it. If you think to yourself "I did terribly on this project" I want you to counter it with acceptance, 'yes, I did, AND I am still worthy, I did everything I could do with the knowledge, information and resources I had at that time and next time I will do better"

As always, if you have any questions or want to work with someone on this topic feel free to contact me to set up a coaching session. Make sure to give yourself grace with this topic, it's not going to get better instantly but every time you do one of these things you are moving yourself towards more self acceptance.