How much do you really love yourself?

How much do you love yourself? Odd question you might think. But as a life coach what I have come to realise is just how little self worth people actually have for themselves. Most people don’t even like themselves, let alone love themselves. Maybe it’s their shyness, their figure, their behaviour, their looks, their neediness or inability to say ‘No’. I think it’s fair to say most of us have something we dislike about ourselves. This only becomes an issue when we allow our lack of self worth to impinge on the decisions we make in life. When we don’t truly accept ourselves for who we are we take fewer social, academic and career risks. But remember, everything you attract into your life is a reflection of what you feel you deserve; your job, your relationship, your home and so on.

Don’t be fooled, loving yourself isn’t egotistical or big headed, that’s just fallacy – in actual fact loving yourself is extremely healthy and those who do, are much happier than those who don’t. People that hold positive beliefs about themselves seem to attract more good into their lives, more opportunities, more money, more luck and more love.

In short, high levels of self worth and self-confidence are vital to a happy, successful and fulfilling life!

So ask yourself the following questions:

On a scale of 1 to 10 (1 being not very much and 10 being very much) how much would you say you love yourself?

Why have you given yourself this score?

Where did these beliefs about yourself originate?

What gets in the way of you loving yourself more?

How do you limit yourself by not loving yourself fully?

Now try the follow exercise on a daily basis over the next 30 days to increase your own self worth.

Learn to love yourself fully

Step 1: Find some quiet time, just five or ten minutes where you won’t be disturbed.

Step 2: Stand in front of a large mirror looking at yourself face-on. Take a couple of deep breaths and relax.

Step 3: I want you to look into your own eyes and tell yourself ‘I love you’ – notice how your body reacts to this message. You may feel the need to look away, you may even feel tearful, or you may dismiss this positive statement replacing it with something negative. Doing this exercise can feel very odd and uncomfortable to begin with, simply because we spend our entire lives scolding ourselves rather than using words of love and praise. By doing this exercise you are releasing old negative beliefs and programming your mind with more positive messages that will enable you to truly love and accept yourself. Repeat the statement ‘I love you’ enough times for you to be able to fully believe it.

Step 4: You can also repeat any positive statement or affirmation to yourself such as ‘I truly accept myself for who I am’ or ‘I am healthy and my body is filled with energy’. I suggest you do this exercise for a few minutes everyday. Make it a habit just like brushing your teeth and notice the difference it makes a month down the line.

And finally…

Answer the following three questions and put your answers somewhere you will see them everyday, maybe your fridge door, bathroom mirror or in your diary:

Write down five things you like about yourself?

Write down three things that make you totally unique as a person?

Write down three things about yourself for which you are grateful?

Loving ourselves is something we need to relearn if we want to be truly happy and content, because if we don’t, not only do we limit ourselves, we spend our entire lives looking to outside sources to provide the love, approval and self worth we are so desperately seeking.

Content provided by Louise Presley-Turner

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For more information visit www.thegameoflife.co.uk