14 Days of Self-Love pt. 1 | Self-Awareness

We wanted to take some time to talk about Self-Love. There are so many different interpretations and definitions of self-love, but we want to share one process to cultivate self-love.
For those that aren’t familiar with what self-love even means, self-love is the loving, healthy relationship you cultivate with yourself. It’s about how you speak to yourself and the caring actions you take towards yourself.
We are excited to introduce a 14-day self-love journey. Over the next 14 days, we will take a look into each step of discovering self-love and share a few exercises to help you along the way.

We’ve broken down the journey into 4 steps: self-awareness, letting go, being kind, and caring actions. Every few days we will dive deeper into one aspect of self-love to create a deeper understanding of why each is important in cultivating a self-love practice. So in these next 14 days, we want to bring you on a journey to find your own form of self-love with journal prompts and small challenges that shows love in some form. These practices help cultivate confidence, which Mel Robbins, Life Coach and New York Times #1 Bestselling author, defines as “the willingness to try.” There is no pressure to do it “right” but just to try something new for the day. These actions may also give you a little insight into your relationship with yourself!

Let’s start our first step towards self-love: Self-Awareness!
What was the first thought you had of yourself today? Was it a critical thought, or an acknowledgment of the progress you’ve made? Do you notice thoughts like, “I’m not good enough” or “I wish I could look like that.” These negative thoughts that we have about ourselves may appear so often that they’re like white noise, going unnoticed, in the back our brains. It’s the self-judgment before we even try on new clothing, it’s the self-doubt when we want to say something, it’s the voice that says, “If I do this, then I’ll be judged by others.” When we notice how we speak to ourselves, we can see how much space those thoughts actually take up. Once we see that, we can let go to create space for new thoughts and feelings.

Have you ever thought any of these things?

  • I’m not good enough.
  • I’m not pretty / handsome enough.
  • I don’t deserve that.
  • Why can’t I do anything right?
  • OF COURSE. It would be me.
  • That person is really cool...and I’m not like that so I must not be.

Have you noticed how often these thoughts pop-up? Is it once in a while, or do they come without you even pausing to listen to what you’ve just said about yourself?

On our journey to cultivate self-love, self-awareness is crucial. Being aware of the thoughts you have is the foundation on how you shift those negative thoughts into thoughts of compassion, kindness, and acceptance. The first step to having a relationship with yourself is knowing how you see yourself. In an HBR.org article, Tasha Eurich states, “Research suggests that when we see ourselves clearly, we are more confident and more creative. We make sounder decisions, build stronger relationships, and communicate more effectively.”

After dipping into why self-awareness is important, we wanted to share a few ways to actively cultivate your self-awareness:

Acknowledge your Feelings

   Life happens, and it’s ok to feel whatever you’re feeling. Snapping to a judgment about yourself because of those feelings is a different story. If someone makes a comment about something, it’s ok to be hurt by it. Feeling these emotions is part of the beauty of being human but know that the feeling is temporary.

Keep a Journal

   This is a great way to observe your day. In the HBR article above, they discuss not only the importance of introspection, but how. According to Tasha, the way that most people observe themselves is actually ineffective because we are asking ourselves the wrong question. Where most people will ask ‘Why’ when trying to understand their feelings, Tasha recommends asking, “What?” What about the situation triggered you? What do these situations have in common? This will allow you to focus on the tangible areas that you can observe and identify ways to move through it. Asking why is a great question, but when cultivating self-awareness, it may lead to creating more negative judgments than positive outlooks.

The first 4 days of our Self-Love Journey will focus on SELF-AWARENESS. This is all about reflecting on different situations and what they mean to you, and noticing if the same thoughts come up each time. The challenge for these 4 days will be to sit in stillness for at least 3-5 minutes while reflecting upon the provided question or challenge. You can meditate if you wish, or it can be enjoying your cup of coffee or tea without any interruptions. The goal of this activity is to observe your thoughts. Does your mind race through the day? Are you constantly comparing? Do you have a moment of gratitude for the space you have or the warmth from the cup in your hand? If you can’t make it to 5 minutes of uninterrupted stillness, do your best to find moments in the day to just notice the thoughts that happen when you aren’t focused on a particular task.

Day 1

Activity - 5 minutes of stillness

Journal prompt - What is love to you? What is your intention with this self-love journey?

Day 2

Activity - 5 minutes of stillness

Journal prompt - What is the best compliment you’ve ever received?

Day 3

Activity - 5 minutes of stillness

Journal prompt - What is the greatest lesson you’ve learned so far?

Day 4

Activity - 5 minutes of stillness

Journal prompt - I get the most energy when….

Join us for our next installment: LETTING GO and our next few days for journal prompts and activities!

Written by Annie Trinh