How to Love Yourself More, and Why You Should
by www.Sedona.com
It’s almost Valentine’s Day … a holiday entirely devoted to loving those around you. Noble? Yes. Worthwhile? Of course … but when is there going to be a day to celebrate loving YOURSELF?
Well, we are proposing one right now. Actually, we encourage you to love yourself more each and every day of the year. Because only when you LOVE yourself are you able to achieve your fullest potential, which means doing the things that make you happy, successful and utterly fulfilled in every way possible.
Unfortunately, many of us are very hard on ourselves. We think things about our bodies, our actions and our decisions that we would never voice to another person, even one we didn’t like. Yet we spew put-downs at ourselves as though we are on autopilot.
Negative self-talk can, indeed, become a way of life, one that we hardly even think twice about. According to the Mayo Clinic, some common methods we use to turn ordinary events into negative ones include:
- Filtering: Focusing on the bad things that happened during the day, while filtering out the positive ones. For instance, you scored three great goals during your evening soccer match, but missed one. Instead of thinking about the goals you made, you criticize yourself for the one you missed.
- Personalizing: Blaming yourself automatically when something bad occurs. For instance assuming that your friend cancelled your dinner date because she didn’t want to be around you.
- Catastrophizing: Automatically anticipating the worst. For instance, deciding to wear something edgier or more form fitting than you normally do, then telling yourself that everyone will think you look terrible.
- Polarizing: Seeing things as either good or bad, with no middle ground. This becomes problematic because you only think you’re a worthwhile person if you are perfect. Since no one is perfect, you constantly put yourself down for no reason.
Letting Go of Negative Self-Talk and Loving Yourself More
Negative self-talk is no fun at all, so why do we do it so often? It can actually become ingrained in us, like brushing our teeth before bed or taking out the garbage. We become so accustomed to it that we don’t realize the damage it does to our self-esteem, or the artificial limits it imposes on so many aspects of our lives.
On the contrary, loving yourself more has nothing but upsides.
“Loving yourself is an important first step in healing the past, improving your life and taking charge of your destiny,” says Hale Dwoskin, CEO and director of training of Sedona Training Associates. “When you dislike yourself, you hold yourself back and punish yourself for no reason.”
“Loving yourself will help you to feel better about yourself right now,” he continues. “Loving yourself will also help you to love and care about others.”
Getting the mindset that allows you to love yourself unconditionally is not hard when you learn The Sedona Method. This is a simple tool that has helped hundreds of thousands of people to value who they are right now.
It works by teaching you how to let go of the guilt, negativity and belittling feelings that are keeping you from feeling great about yourself.
“The best way to learn to love yourself is to allow yourself to let go of disapproving yourself,” Dwoskin says. “Then allow yourself to love or approve of yourself exactly as you are, as best you can. You can choose to love yourself even if there are things about yourself that you know could be better.”
“Love is the answer,” he continues. “Let love shine from your heart to yourself, the people around you and the world at large.”
Source
MayoClinic.com | 
