Your One Stop All-You-Need 2021 Self-Love Checklist
What is self-love to you?
Skincare routines, green smoothies, loving ugly parts of yourself, daily meditation, spending time alone……Golly, the list is long!
So many options! You try them all. But your head is in a tizz, and you don’t quite feel like you’ve made progress in the 2021 self-love department quite yet.
But here’s the thing.
Daily self-love doesn’t need to be elaborate, expensive, or feel like alien territory. This is exactly why we’ve rounded up a self-love checklist. Here we discuss eight essential ways to help you slip into “love me first” mode.
Do We Really Understand Self-Love?
“Treating yourself” is a great way to boost your well-being. But unfortunately can sometimes be misunderstood for justifying “short-term-happiness-only” actions.
In this bucket, we often find:
- Online retail therapy
- Indulgence in food cravings followed by instant detox diets
- Netflix binges with a peel mask on
- Overtly rigid zen-zone rituals because #spirituality
You get the picture, right?
This can confuse people about self-love vs. instant gratification.
The way we relate to ourselves dictates our entire reality. Everything from how you feel in your own skin, how you show up in the world, and even how you navigate your relationships.
It all begins with self-love.
So, let’s get started.
Your Daily Self-Love Checklist
1. Discipline is a Form of Self-Love
Did you read that and go, “say what now?”
In our early years, discipline was a way to teach us etiquette and prepare us to fit into society. Or a way to teach us about healthy living. In truth, practicing discipline for these reasons alone can make it often feel like drudgery.
Instead, what if discipline was actually a way to help you keep up small promises to yourself daily?
A routine could be small things like practicing five minute morning stillness or not skipping breakfast. Remember, small steps turn into mighty ones with practice.
Now can you see how a routine/discipline can not only make your morning infinitely better and brighter but can be a form of daily self-love?
Will you include a disciplined routine in your self-love checklist?
Make sure to check out: 7 Unhealthy Morning Habits You Need to Quit Immediately in 2021
2. Use Your Love Language for Self-Love
The five love languages (physical touch, acts of service, words of affirmation, quality time, and gift-giving) are well-established ways by which we give and receive love.
Communicating your love language with your partner can be immensely beneficial to your relationship. However, the relationship that you have with yourself is the first and most important one.
What’s your love language? Can you use this love language for self-love? Add this to your 2021 wellness checklist and see how you feel about it.
3. Practice Radical Honesty
Radical honesty essentially is having the ability to hold yourself accountable for your actions.
For many, however, radical honesty is a frightening concept. Having the courage to look at the good, bad and ugly parts of yourself and then practicing self-acceptance is not exactly a fun process.
Despite how scary it may seem, it indeed is life-transforming and worth giving a try.
So, buckle up and be prepared to dive into the real you.
4. Breathe Your Way to Self-Love
Even as you read this, take in a deep (really deep) breath.
Let’s inhale-exhale together—one more time.
Breath is what gives us life. But it’s also an invaluable tool for establishing the mind-body connection. Did you ever consider that breathing and intentional breathwork can be a way to express self-love and be intimate with yourself?
5. Let That Sh*t Go
“Endless negative thoughts are AMAZING!” said nobody ever.
Most of us know that past emotional hurt needs to be released. But it’s easier said than done!
Holding onto emotional hurt creates thought spirals that energetically affect the Heart chakra and physiologically cause cortisol (stress hormone) release in our body. Dwelling in these spirals accounts for self-sabotage (the polar opposite of self-love).
Journaling is a great tool to process toxic past memories and heal the Heart chakra. Opening the Heart chakra in this way allows you to be more compassionate towards yourself.
You should also read: How to Break Out of a Chronic Worry Loop
6. Believe You Are Powerful
Power. What does it mean to you?
We are a manifestation of divine energy and hold unlimited power within our core. This power is expressed as motivation and determination we feel for taking goal-oriented action.
Make a mental note if you feel powerful (or) powerless in your everyday. Do you believe that you can create your own reality?
To acknowledge this power within us intentionally channel it for manifestation is truly an act of self-love.
7. Embrace Inner Child Work
Your inner child is the part of you that wants to be set free of societal conditioning.
Connecting with and reparenting your inner child is an extremely cathartic and transformational experience. It’s also a way to meet yourself up close and personal in ways you never knew was possible.
Writing a letter to your inner child is a great place to start on this journey.
Are you willing to go down memory lane and experience self-connection and self-intimacy at a whole another level?
8. Movement is Self-Love
Fitness experts and holistic wellness gurus can both unanimously agree that exercise of any form is a sure-shot way of pampering your body.
Movement is how your body understands that you care.
Quality time and attention are what matter for a successful relationship. Similarly, you’ll need to provide it your undivided time and attention for you to have a successful relationship with your body and yourself.
Yoga, pilates, cardio, strength training, it can be anything! Add exercise to your 2021 self-love checklist and watch your body respond with glee.
Destination Self-Love Reached?
Today’s self-love checklist is a great way to start a 2021 self-love reset. Even as you begin looking within, here’s a friendly reminder:
Self-love is not a destination. If you feel like you haven’t “made it,” remember that your daily self-love checklist is all about the journey.
Celebrate small wins and share with us your own self-love ideas for 2021.
Related article: 10 Fresh Self-Love Ideas for Springtime
