Take Care of the COVID Essentials – Self-Care and Self-Love
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Society often forgets the importance of well-being. Corona is forcing us to (re)view the strong relationship between our health, self-care and self-love.
I often say to clients who visit my practice, “learning to love you is one of life’s more difficult skills”. Even so, this skill is essential for a healthy and happy life.
I consciously use the word "skill" because self-love is something anyone can learn. All you need is to be willing to embark on this particular path to inner growth.
There is no single, correct path to self-love; you will also have to make the journey on your own...because self-love begins and ends with you. I started this process years ago and can recommend it to everyone.
Learning to love yourself has so many benefits. Not just for you, but for everyone you meet along the way!
Discover some of the benefits of learning to love yourself.
- Self-love helps you make healthy choices, increasing your energy and fitness levels.
When you love yourself, you naturally take care of your health. You start to think more about what you eat and how often you exercise. You are willing go to bed on time and learn more about nutrition, herbs, essential oils and natural care products. In short, a healthy lifestyle becomes part of your daily life.
- Self-love boosts self-confidence.
Because you completely accept who you are, you are able to throw away any feelings of insecurity. You walk with your head high and feel more beautiful and more powerful. This attitude gives you the confidence and strength to pursue your dreams.
- Growing in self-love helps you cope more easily with setbacks and failures.
Rather than being harsh and critical toward yourself, you forgive and love yourself instead. You will also find that the negativity of others has much, much less of an effect so that you, in turn, are able to forgive them and let go of any disappointment or hurt quickly.
- Self-love improves your relationships with others. It makes you glow with positivity.
And this positivity has wonderful effects on your connections with others. If you love yourself, you will soon begin to attract healthy, caring relationships.
- Self-love gives you a sense of freedom.
You can never truly be happy and taste the freedom and joy life has to offer if you don't know and love yourself completely. Self love teaches you to become your own best friend; it means taking care of yourself and not being afraid to be your true self. Self-love frees you from the vicious cycle of negative thoughts cause damage to yourself and to others.
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Have I convinced you that self-love flings open the gates to a healthy and happy life yet?!
Below, you will find a few suggestions that are guaranteed to help you develop and maintain a high degree of well-deserved self-love.
I hope these tips will also encourage and strengthen you to better cope during this challenging time.
- Start every day with a smile.
“Bad luck” is only real in our minds – by beginning the day on a happy note, you can really start to turn around those useless negative thoughts. Your happy face improves your day and the days of your family and friends.
- Get some exercise every day.
Go for a walk or run. Play a game of badminton or just dance in front of the mirror. Take care of yourself by doing your favourite energetic hobby on a daily basis.
- Get outdoors.
Fresh air clears your head and gives your energy levels a powerful surge. Being outdoors has so many positive overall effects that you will even boost your immunity levels.
- Spend time alone.
Me-time is a form of self-love. Give yourself a few minutes to write down your thoughts and feelings, meditate or try a few yoga poses. You will soon see that the sense of peace this alone time brings will make you a much happier person.
- Create your own at-home spa.
Take a long bath or shower. Even a soothing foot soak is enough to pamper yourself. Use natural products and care for your skin with organic, gentle and loving products.
- Do something different!
Read an inspirational book, start an online course or try out a new recipe. Immerse yourself in something for which there never seemed to be time before.
- Start and end your day with meditation.
Meditation adds value to your life.
- Be grateful for everything that you already have.
Most self-love essentials are free and accessible to everyone.These include enjoying a walk, preparing a healthy meal, listening to music, phone or over-the-fence conversations with good friends or new acquaintances, a hug from people in your bubble, love and appreciation of yourself and others, time spent in the sunshine...
Could you use some extra support?
An absolute must is the Go4Balance range of creams inspired by the four elements. Trust and Enjoy are true ‘feel good’ factors for the whole family. They contain pure essential oils that have been proven to calm our emotions and promote inner healing.
Even kids love it when mum or dad takes the time to massage their little feet with Trust or Enjoy cream. Indulge yourself and apply Trust or Enjoy cream to your freshly bathed feet in the evening, just before you go to sleep (self-massage). Or pamper your partner with a blissful foot massage! This loving activity both soothes and connects us.
Happy Skin and Clear Skin products should also be part of your self-love home spa !
Keep the faith and take good care of yourself and your loved ones.
Love and positivity to you all,
Lieve Plasch
Lic. Psychologist