Are you a member of the self love club?

Self love might conjure up the idea of face masks or mani/pedi’s for some and yes, the idea of self love can have vast meaning, reaching way beyond spa days. We can use the terms self love and self compassion interchangeably, the concept of showing love, kindness and compassion towards ourselves.

It has been shown that real kindness and compassion towards ourselves can help reduce anxiety and depression, also enabling us to show more loving kindness to others. We live in a world where busier is better, it is even rewarded in the workplace. However, when we can start to move away from the concept of busyness and perfectionism, which often leads to critique of self and others, we can start to see dramatic improvements in our overall physical and mental well being. As we learn to listen to ourselves, paying close attention to our inner dialogue, we can become more in tune with the ways in which we speak to ourselves, course correcting negative self talk and destructive criticism of self. This is a practice that can help us in our journey to self compassion.

Yoga and meditation are also extremely helpful. For me, they have allowed me to find compassion for myself and others in a way I had become incapable of previously. I’ve been able to see myself in new ways leading to my view of others shifting as well.

The work we do on our mats can transform us off of our mats and this is part of why I love yoga so much and have such a deep appreciation for the impact it has had on my own life and experiences. If we can learn to be a little kinder towards ourselves each day and that kindness spreads out into those we interact with and then perhaps those we interact with are inspired to spread a little extra kindness, well that is when we can experience radical change in our communities and in our world.

So what do you say? Are you in the self love club??

Galentine Gift Guide

I put together a little gift guide for your favorite gal pals, but I won’t tell if you do a little shopping for yourself, too!