I’m the first to admit that I’m an overthinker and over-analyser. I’m also an introvert, a highly sensitive person (HSP) and a perfectionist. All of this combined can sometimes make me worry quite a bit and be a tad too hard on myself. When I notice this, I go back to my number one practice for helping me to worry less: self-love.
Right now, as I’m writing this, I’m thinking about what acts of self-love I will do later today. I already did some this morning as I went for a nice long power walk in the park with my husband and the lovely Labrador we dog-sit. Now, I’m having a little productivity sprint getting things done – including this write-up! Yet, I’m very aware of my natural drive to always want to do more so I’ve given myself a strict cut-off time to log-off. After that, it’s time for more acts of self-love.
This is especially important for me right now as I’m in the midst of lots of change. It’s all very exciting but sometimes also a bit overwhelming. That means I need to stay on top of my wellbeing and mental health and do what I can to ensure I worry less.
Before the end of the month, my husband and I are moving to France for a year(ish) for a kind of sabbatical year. That means there is a lot of organisation and logistical planning going into that. My horse Mickey is coming with us so I’m doing what I can to ensure his travel is as smooth as possible and that when he arrives in France we have everything he could possibly need.
We’re also on the hunt for a puppy as we’re ready to get a dog of our own. Following on from our marriage four months ago, we’re also changing our surnames to form a new surname that blends both of our surnames (don’t even get me started on the admin involved in that). And then, of course, there are the usual day-to-day life and work bits we’re trying to stay on top of. Needless to say, there’s a lot going on. This is exactly why I’m making a conscious effort to practice self-love daily.
How Self-Love Helps You to Worry Less
For me, there are three big ways in which self-love helps you to worry less:
1. Self-love drives your health and wellbeing.
When you actively practice self-love, you treat your body better. You believe you’re worthy and you appreciate yourself more. That means you treat yourself with respect and give your body what it needs. You’re more likely to exercise regularly, feed your body nutritiously and give yourself the rest you need. You’re less likely to do diets but instead eat in a balanced way. You do exercise because it makes you feel good, not because it is a punishment. You rest because you know you need time to recharge and you feel so much better because of this.
When you do all this, you feel better, both physically and psychologically. When you feel good, you naturally worry less and are better able to focus on the positives.
2. Self-love enables you to work in a more balanced way.
When you are able to truly embrace self-love, you start to embrace balance in your life. You stop working yourself to the ground because you realise that your worth isn’t measured by how much you do. You start to work smarter rather than harder and you start to believe that however much you have done today is enough, even if on a bad day it means you’ve done very little or nothing at all. Finally, you believe you are more than enough exactly as you are, so you waste less time doing things that don’t matter to you and instead focus on doing the things that fulfil you.
When you learn to work from a place of self-love like this, you start to enjoy work more and you actually end up being more productive. That means you’ll be able to create even more time for life outside work and truly cherish every bit of it.
3. Self-love fuels your relationships.
When you treat yourself with self-love, you make it clear to everyone around you that you are worthy of it and that this is the way you desire to be treated. You also show how good it makes you feel and hence potentially inspire them to treat themselves with more love and kindness too. All of this fuels positive energy in every interaction and fulfilment in every relationship. This reduces the likelihood of conflict, and even if a conflict does arise (which is natural in every relationship), you can better resolve it from a place of love. In short, wholeheartedly loving yourself only makes it easier to love and receive love from others.
To get you started on your self-love journey right here right now, I want you to ask yourself this:
What is one act of self-love I can do today?
Decide on it and commit to it. Any act is fine if you believe it makes you feel loved and makes you feel better.
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