Taking care of ourselves and expressing self-love is the perfect way to boost your mood, energy and self-esteem, which is why it’s such an important aspect of our wellness rituals. Whilst we all spend a lot of time working on our goals, careers and appearances, it’s also just as important to spend time working on our inner selves, to develop self-love, acceptance and compassion for ourselves, so that we can in turn give our best selves to the world.
Expressing and developing self-love is not a one size fits all process, as we all understand love in different ways. There are actually 5 different love languages which explain how we each prefer to express and receive love, and identifying which language you connect to the most can help you to develop the self-love rituals which benefit you the most.
Self Love Language 1: Physical Touch
Expressing self-love through the language of physical touch involves doing things which make your body feel good.
This could include wrapping up warm in soft blankets, treating yourself to a massage or enjoying exercise and moving your body. Some of our suggestions to help you feel great are:
- Enjoying a relaxing massage with a nourishing body oil. Our founder Laura recommends enjoying a relaxing bath with our Super Berry Bath and Shower Oil, before massaging in our Super Berry Body Oil for a relaxing and restorative evening.
- Getting cozy for a film night with warm blankets and lots of cushions.
- Stretching it out with an invigorating yoga flow.
- Unwinding for the evening with a home facial using all of your favourite skincare products.
- Moving your body and dancing to all of your favourite songs.
Physical touch is so important because it helps to reduce stress, create a sense of comfort and well-being and even help to strengthen our immune systems.
Self Love Language 2: Quality Time
Spend some quality time away from screens and enjoying things you love and bring you happiness, such as your favourite hobbies or meditation. This could include:
- Calming and clearing your mind by practicing meditation.
- Indulging in your favourite hobbies.
- Taking yourself on a date and treating yourself to your favourite foods.
- Making time to relax.
Spending quality time becoming comfortable with yourself allows you to get to know yourself and is an important part of self-development.
Self Love Language 3: Acts of Service
Show yourself some love by arranging or doing something for yourself that makes you feel good, such as:
- Treating yourself to therapy to help you feel your best.
- Helping someone else! Acts of kindness can help others whilst also helping us to feel good about ourselves.
- Cleaning and tidying up to create a working and living environment you can thrive in.
- Scheduling and planning to help you feel on top of everything in your life. You can also try scheduling exciting future plans and events, as having something to look forward to can help us to feel more positive.
Helping others can have a positive impact on our lives as it can help to promote a more positive and optimistic attitude, helping manage stress and improve our mood.
Self Love Language 4: Receiving Gifts
Investing in yourself by treating yourself to gifts can boost your mood and leave you feeling happier. This could include:
- Booking and making plans so that you have something exciting to motivate you for the future.
- Purchasing craft supplies which you can enjoy and spend time working on at home.
- Treating yourself to little gifts and indulgences.
- Ordering comfy clothes so that you feel your best whilst working from home.
Buying gifts for ourselves can bring us temporary satisfaction and enjoyment. Saving up for and spending money on experiences can be one of the best ways to buy happiness, as it can leave you feeling more positive if you have something to look forward to.
Self Love Language 5: Words of Affirmation
It is really important to give ourselves love, appreciation and reassurance, and a great way to do so is through daily words of affirmation. These encourage us to be our best and most confident selves.
- Give yourself a positive pep talk to reaffirm your love for yourself.
- Repeat daily affirmations to create a positive daily mindset.
- Journal your thoughts and feelings to become more aware of your daily emotions in order to better understand and learn from them.
- Create and repeat mantras which calm your mind and reaffirm who you are and what you want out of life.
Words of affirmation about oneself have been shown to encourage a more optimistic mindset, to become more adaptive and to spend less time dwelling on negative thoughts.
There are lots of ways that you can show yourself some self-love, but in our busy day to day lives we can often forget to invest some much needed time in ourselves. We’d recommend starting out by trying to incorporate one act of self-love into your day and building up from there. By trying out some different ideas, you’ll be able to discover which language of love you identify with the most in order to create the right wellness ritual to help you feel your best.
