Practicing positive self-talk

Self-care habits you didn’t even know you needed

Laynie Clark, Assistant Arts & Life Editor

The biggest thing that this generation is lacking is a healthy dose of self-love. Unfortunately, we are all too busy looking at other’s perfections that we start to forget the importance of seeing our own. Though, it is quite impossible to live a satisfied life without that because we need self-love. Needing self-love is the equivalent to needing air because you will suffocate without it.

There have been too many times where I have looked at myself and thought something negative about what I saw, and then I would carry on with my day like it was no big deal. Except, it is a big deal. I have trained myself to believe that comments like, “I look bad” and “I need to lose weight” are perfectly acceptable things to say to myself, when in reality comments like this are detrimental to my mental and physical health. Instead of looking in the mirror or at other people and making deteriorating remarks about myself, I should be noticing the beautiful parts. 

One of the best ways to promote self-love is by saying affirmations in the mirror. Affirmations are positive statements that help challenge and overcome negative thoughts. I have made it my mission to say affirmations every morning before I get ready and whenever I can feel myself panicking about something. Adding this to my everyday routine has helped my confidence grow immensely and made me feel so much more alive in my skin. Some of my favorite affirmations are “I am enough” and “Opportunities are all around me.”

Another good way to instill affirmations into an everyday routine is by journaling. This was especially beneficial to me when I started my journey of increased self-love. Journaling affirmations is calming and helps ease any anxieties that I am having because I am able to write down everything and decorate the page using my creativity. I firmly believe that this is an activity that everyone should partake in because it is the best way to create positive energy when everything gets a little too chaotic. 

It pains me to see so many people struggle with loving themselves because I understand how exhausting that pain can be. Everyone has flaws and that is okay, but everyone also has perfections and that part always seems to be left out. It is becoming more evident every day how much society needs to grasp the importance of self-love because there is too much comparison poisoning the world. Nobody should feel bad about themselves because everyone deserves to feel happy in their own skin and that is a fact that needs to be embraced.