Self-love includes the ability to appreciate your own value and worth. It also includes taking steps to optimize your happiness and well-being. So, nurturing self-love means taking steps to work on your relationship with yourself. When you start practicing self-love, you may start to celebrate yourself and your strengths more, take more time to listen to and honor your needs, and do more things for your happiness and good health.
However, when you start nurturing more self-love, it can have a ripple effect throughout your life. Suddenly, when you feel better and take care of yourself, your work life can improve, you can devote more time to hobbies and passions, and your relationships with friends, family members and partners can also improve. So loving yourself can actually bring you more love and joy in all your relationships.
Here are some ways self-love can improve your relationships:
YOU INTERACT WITH OTHERS FROM YOUR PLACE OF TRUST
So many people go through life feeling bad and very hard on themselves and often have low confidence as a result. This low confidence then affects their interactions with others. They may doubt and appear nervous or insecure, may be embarrassed to be authentically themselves, and may always put others first, sacrificing their own needs. However, when you love yourself, you appreciate your value and your worth. When you love yourself, you are able to interact with others from a place of confidence, from a place where you know how much you bring to the relationship and therefore from a place where you feel secure in yourself. All this means is that you are able to show more of yourself in these relationships and just be yourself..
YOU ARE CAPABLE OF SETTING BOUNDARIES (THUS FEELING LESS APPRECIATED)
Often, when you don't feel very confident or good about yourself, you may find yourself putting other people's needs before your own. This could mean that you end up feeling very hurt in this relationship. Whether you always do what your friend wants to do (rather than what you want to do) when you meet; you meet your date only when he/she is free and has time (not when it's convenient for you); or feeling obligated to do things for family members even though you feel run down and tired, all of these things can make you feel very resentful and
angry at the other person. However, as you begin to practice more self-love, you can set stricter boundaries in your relationships. You may start saying no to things you don't feel comfortable with and prioritizing "me time" and your needs over the needs of others. While this may seem selfish, it is actually good for both you and others. People often respect others who set boundaries more than those who simply say yes to every whim and demand. Setting firmer boundaries also means that you bring your happiest and best self to every relationship and that your relationships are more balanced.
YOU SET THE PRECEDENT FOR HOW YOU EXPECT TO BE TREATED
The way you treat yourself sets the precedent for how you expect other people to treat you. If you never listen to your own wants and needs, how can you expect others to even know what those are
wants or needs? If you never take time to take care of yourself or your well-being, others may also think you don't need or value that time they may want to take care of or take care of you . If you want others to talk to you and treat you a certain way, one of the best ways to achieve that is to start treating yourself that way first. By prioritizing yourself and your needs and treating yourself with the utmost care and respect, you show others that they must do the same to stay in your life.
DON'T DEPEND ON OTHERS TO MAKE YOU HAPPY
When we are not feeling very well, we can often rely on other people to make us happy. Because we don't take the time to do things we enjoy or devote time to our own needs and interests, we rely much more on what other people say and do to make us feel good. However, as we practice self-love, we take our happiness into our own
your hands. We value ourselves and also know that it is worth making time for our passions and interests. We invest in ourselves and our well-being. As a result of loving ourselves and investing in our own happiness, we don't rely on what other people say and do to make us happy. They either add and complete our lives or they don't, but we are not completely dependent on them to feel good about ourselves and our lives.
YOU DON'T NEED SO MUCH EXTERNAL VALIDATION
Many people base their feelings about themselves on what other people think of them. So they will only feel good about their appearance on days when someone compliments them, will only feel proud of their work or art if someone else likes it, or will only feel confident in their clothing if a friend is wearing something similar . This means that they are highly dependent on external validation (or
the approval of others). However, when you practice self-love, you learn to appreciate yourself, your choices, and your worth, regardless of what other people think. This can really help your relationship as you are not constantly looking for the encouragement and validation from others and instead you can simply enjoy the other person's company. For example, you won't need constant affirmation from your partner that you look good, and you won't need regular reassurance from your friends that they still like you. Once you love yourself, all that validation and nurturing comes from you, and you can just go on enjoying the company of those you love and care about.
YOU CHOOSE PEOPLE TO SPEND TIME WITH WHO KNOW YOUR WORTH
One of the greatest benefits of self-love is that it can mean that you
moving away from or changing the dynamics in relationships that do not serve you and your life. As you appreciate your worth, you also know when other people don't. You have high standards for how you should be treated and what or who you will accept in your life. You begin to realize that you only want those relationships in your life where there is mutual trust and respect, where you both care for each other, and where you are uplifted and inspired by your interactions. Self-love allows you to choose your relationships wisely and create a life full of meaningful and uplifting relationships.
So yes, self love is about your relationship with yourself and how you feel and treat yourself. However, practicing self-love can bring you the most powerful love, respect, and care you've ever had in all of your other relationships.