Dare I say, loving yourself is just as important as taking care of yourself. In fact, loving and accepting yourself fully can actually be a form of self-care.
When you practice self-love, the way you treat yourself sets the standard for how others are allowed to treat you. It is often said that when people love themselves, they are less likely to experience anxiety or depression. Self-love is a powerful feeling that instills both a strong sense of self and confidence; and it paves the way to a more positive mindset.
As the world is slowly opening up again, it’s important to reduce as much stress and anxiety from our daily lives. Surviving the global pandemic has been a great achievement in itself. So, what better way to celebrate being alive than with a 7-day self-love challenge?
In this 7-day challenge, the goal is to help you: accept yourself, forgive yourself, build self-confidence, understand your worth, appreciate your flaws, and most importantly love the skin/body you're in.
Day 1: Wear Your Favorite Outfit!
If you enjoy dressing up just for the fun of it, you’re going to really love this day. There’s always something special about putting on that staple leather jacket or rocking those cool pair of shoes that always make you feel alive and super confident. Besides that, it’s also very important that you look and feel good about what you wear.
Day 2: Get The Full 8 Hours of Sleep!
With busy schedules and long work hours, there’s no better time to challenge yourself to an extensive good night's sleep. You owe it to your body to get the full rest that it needs to recharge and continue another day. Among other things, getting a good night’s sleep can help to boost your immune system, strengthen your heart, increase your productivity, and improve your memory.
Day 3: Be of Service to Someone!
The great thing about providing service is that you don’t have to do something extravagant to be of service to someone. Service can be as simple as helping someone with their math problem or helping a friend with their relationship issues. Another act of servitude could be volunteering right there in your community and finding out how you can be of help to those in need.
Day 4: Repeat Positive Mantras or Affirmations!
This challenge is probably one of the easiest challenges on the list. Repeating positive affirmations to yourself can be as simple as waking up every morning and repeating the phrase “I love and accept myself” or reciting “I am enough. I have enough. I do enough” over and over again. When you say these kind words to yourself, you should notice a positive mood change in the way you think and speak to yourself.
Day 5: Cut That Bad Habit!
This challenge, on the other hand, might be a little tough to most as this dares you to kick a bad habit for the day. This could mean changing your eating habits, changing your negative thoughts about yourself, not being so hard on yourself, saying yes all of the time, and so forth. Find one easy bad habit that you can put aside for the day and be mindful about not continuing that habit the next day.
Day 6: Listen to a “Forgive Yourself” Meditation!
Studies show that people who practice self-forgiveness have better mental and emotional wellbeing, positive attitudes and healthier relationships with other people. Those who are highly critical of themselves are more likely to experience negativity, stress, shame, and pessimism. Self-forgiveness is important to your healing process because it allows you to let go of your anger, shame, guilt and sadness that you may be feeling or holding onto.
Day 7: Write a Love Letter to Yourself!
After the self-forgiveness process, writing a valuable appreciation letter to yourself will showcase your most valued qualities that you like about yourself. Once you’ve listed those qualities, you can then go back and state how you plan on honoring those amazing qualities in the future. Take as much time as you need with this part.
If for some reason you don’t feel comfortable with doing a particular challenge on a day, feel free replace the challenge with one of these challenges below:
- Give yourself a day off
- Go for a hike or a walk
- Try a new activity or sport
- Read a good book
- Write in your gratitude journal
- Eat your favorite meal
- Practice saying no
- Go exercise
- Get a manicure or pedicure (or both)
- Compliment someone
- Smile a lot
- Do something without feeling guilty
Which of these self-love challenge days are you excited to try out?
Josie D
Follow Josie on Instagram @sincerely_josied and @susquehannastyle, and hashtag #Susquehannastyle to let us know.
For all things self-care, personal growth, fashion, and travel, check out thecheetahbuzz.com.
