Do you ever feel like you are mental and physically drained by the time the day is over?
What if you took a few minutes at the beginning of your day to do things for you? Filling your love cup with some self-love and self-care is just what you need.
You can’t pour from an empty cup.
Giving yourself attention so you can take on the day, could be as little as enjoying a cup of coffee outside in nature, taking a few deep breaths to center yourself, or a yoga flow to get your body moving. Whatever it may be, when you care for yourself first, you are able to care for others. We call this “filling your love cup.” This is the power of self-love.
Ways to Fill your Love Cup
Getting your mindset right and doing little things each day for YOURSELF is what we are talking about. If you have never done this, let us help you figure out the best way to your journey of self-love and self-care.
Our top 6 ways to fill your love cup:
- Journal Gratitude
- Mediate
- Move your Body
- Go to bed Early
- Pamper Yourself
- Learn to say “no”
Journal Gratitude
If journaling doesn’t come naturally for you. Start by writing down everything that comes to your head. This is a great way to declutter all the thoughts that come to your head. It also allows you to put your thoughts into perspective. Knowing your reason and “why” before you start will help motivate you to keep journaling. Do you want to establish a healthy self-dialogue or capture memories? What do you want to accomplish by journaling? What do you hope to get out of it? Using writing prompts to get you started, can be as simple as, “What are you grateful for today?”
Each person is different, the way you journal is up to you. It can be bullet points, a gratitude journal, a dream journal, you may want to track your food intake or even your moods during your menstrual cycle. There are no rules to journaling, start small. Take five minutes at the start of each day and jot down anything you would like to say, whatever comes to mind. Journaling is a powerful tool to give yourself self-love. This is precious time to yourself, time chiseled out of your day, and time to have fun. Pretty soon this will be a daily habit if you make it consistent every day. You will see how you’ve grown and the positive impact journaling has on your life.
Mediate
When we mediate, we are kinder you ourselves, promote focus and lower our stress levels. Focusing on our breath, builds attention and mindfulness in our daily lives. Mediation helps our body, mind and soul be present. As we follow the breath, breathe in and out and return to our breath, we anchor ourselves in the here and now. Mediation is all for you, there is no judgment or beating yourself up. When starting out on your mediation journey, be patient with yourself. You may find yourself getting distracted or wanting to give up. Remember, this time is for you. During meditation, we are reaching for mindfulness, not perfection. It is ok if you get distracted, bring yourself back to your breath, and continue breathing. Get comfortable with comfy clothing, focus on your breath and breathe for two minutes. If you are just starting out, some of our favorite apps are Calm, Insight Timer and Headspace. If you would like more information on mediation, check out this article.
Move your Body
When we move our bodies, we get a little shock from our happy hormones. Did you know exercising just 10 minutes a day makes you more happy and cheerful? The sun is your best boost of Vitamin D. Why not exercise outside. Vitamin D helps in boosting our mood. Sunlight releases hormones in our brain releasing serotonin, the happy hormone, boosting mood, focus and calm to our bodies. The type of exercise does not matter, if you enjoy walking or jogging go for it, if you like yoga or stretching, this is great too. PIck which exercise routine works for you and makes you happy and practice this each day!
Go to Bed Early
Sleep is crucial to a healthy body. One way to give yourself self-love is to go to bed an hour early. Turn off the cell phone, and television, lower the temperature of the room and turn the lights off. Keeping your room cold, quiet and dark helps promote a better night’s sleep. As we sleep, our body temperature rises, so starting off with a cold room helps. Keeping your thermostat between 60 and 67 degrees. A colder room helps prevent disease, slows down the aging process and improves the overall quality of sleep.
Pamper Yourself
What do you like to do that makes you happy? Do you enjoy foot massages? Mani or Pedi? Do you enjoy shopping. Find what makes you happy, and treat yourself. When we reward ourselves for positive things we do, we rewire our brains with this new habit. This creates a positive feedback loop and helps you build the power of self-love. When we acknowledge we are doing something good for ourselves and celebrate, we are creating behavior change and a psychological frameshift that makes pampering ourselves that much easier. If you would like more information about this, check out Melissa with EpicLuv on Instagram.
Learn to say “no”
Once you learn to fill your love cup, you are able to find self peace. You give yourself a boost of happy hormones and are able to take on whatever comes your way. Learn to fill your cup each day! Whether it is journaling gratitude, meditation, moving your body, going to bed early or learning to say “no” you will find what ways work for your self-love and self-care journey!
Now that you know 6 ways to the power of self-love. Go on, love yourself, celebrate those wins and promote positivity in your life. If you find ways to fill your cup, please let us know. We would love to make this list grow. This is the power of self-love.