Why Self-Love is Fundamental to Your Health and Happiness
Why Self-Love is Fundamental to Your Health and Happiness
Below is an excerpt from my book:
Chapter 2: Cultivate Self-Love
Affirmation
I love and accept myself fully, as I am right now.
Self-love and compassion are fundamental to optimal health. You may have noticed that when you have loving thoughts about yourself, you are less likely to distract yourself away from feelings of contempt with behaviors and foods that take away from your health and vitality. Loyally caring for your body is an excellent way to soften your relationship with yourself and build a nourishing foundation off of which you can blossom.
“To keep the body in good health is a duty… otherwise we shall not be able to keep our mind strong and clear.” —Buddha
The key to a strong, clear, accepting mind is sustaining healthy behaviors. I do not think that we have to be Puritan about our health, but it does help if we are acting in favor of our health every single day.
In addition to behaving in favor of our health, a crucial component of strength, clarity and self-acceptance is getting to know our inner critic—that convincing voice in our head that says we can’t, or we’re not enough.
I was once at a talk by author Geneen Roth and she said something along the lines of: “Most of us identify with the voice of our inner critic, so much so we can’t even recognize it, and even when we do recognize it we have trouble not believing it—pick on your super ego with humor, disengage, say ‘get away, you are not my friend.’”
Her words resonated with me. I considered how many times I have listened to and identified with my inner critic because I couldn’t recognize it for what it was. Often we take this voice in our head for absolute reality: if we think it, it must be true.
It takes great awareness and attention to recognize the voice of our inner critic—it’s sneaky and at times not obvious—but the more we watch this dimension of our ego, the louder it gets and the easier it becomes to identify. In time, our inner critic loses dominance, especially as we begin to prove it wrong. But, we must remain attentive; without daily self-care and awareness we can easily loose sight of our inner critic and our foundation of health and abundance begins to crumble—the self-defeating voice creeping back in to construct a reality of scarcity and limitations.
Consider the following rituals a demonstration of your love and care for yourself. These rituals, although seemingly superficial in theory and practice, will support your foundation of health and nourish the seed of belief that you planted in chapter one. As you perform these rituals, observe and uncover your inner critic, actively dissipating self-defeating thoughts as they arise; have compassion for such thoughts, but try not to let them call the shots.
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About the Author
Allie Andrews is the Founder and Program Director at OmBody Health. She is a Certified Health Coach, author, and is pursuing her Master’s Degree in Education with a focus in Corporate Wellness. Allie and her team have been transforming employee wellbeing since 2014. Learn more.