Self Love isn’t just loving yourself — there is much more to it
“You have to love yourself enough to set a standard for your life that you’re unwilling to compromise. If you accept the standards of others for your life, you’ll never be happy.” — Tony Gaskins”
I had always been a careless person, when it came to myself. I never spent more than 2 minutes deciding what to wear and another 2 minutes in front of the mirror to fix the hair. After all what else is required to be presentable! But there is more to our image. It’s beyond what we perceive and its beyond what we can imagine.
Self-love is a state of appreciation for oneself, where we embrace our actions, our mental well-being and our spiritual growth. These actions were although missing from my life as, I like others felt Self Love is selfish and cosmetic!
But it is not!
My Own Story of how self-love transformed my life
From my own experience, Self-Love can be transformational enough to redirect us to our bigger goals — the ones which we never imagined in the wildest of our dreams. Let me tell, how it worked for me:
- I started taking care of my appearances thus it boosted my self-confidence and made me more careful of the products I selected.
- Being careful in the product selection made me choosy and thus made it an time-intensive but a well-researched process. I became conscious of what I bought — in terms of brands, material, its origin, the process and the brand’s value.
- This intensive process further connected me to people involved in the process — the makers, the influencers, fellow connoisseurs, thus connecting me to a bigger community of like-minded people.
- The products I was embracing were usually hand-crafted and close to being organic, thus expensive but evergreen investments. I started buying thoughtfully and minimally to add only selected pieces to my wardrobe. It literally translated to Curating my wardrobe along with being a minimalist.
- Once I started using curated products, I received accolades from friends and family about my well-thought choices and it further boosted my confidence.
- This confidence is constantly visible in my output as I am more sure about what I do.
Some suggestions
- In your process of transformation, you need to go slow, as it’s all about re-discovering your own self. Running fast will only make you miss the small Joys of discovery.
- When you embrace something, look at the details carefully — it could be the handmade wooden buttons, French knot in the stitch, play of textures and fabric, shape of the closure flap of a bag etc. Observing the tiny details will bring you closer to the process of the making and understand the design concept embedded by the artist along with appreciating the involved hard work .
- In order to rediscover, it is essential to experiment. This might be the most fundamental part as it would lead you to unknown territories and expose you to countless possibilities to be creative. It would help you create your own statement which might be embraced by others in the process.
- Also, one of the important things to do, is to acknowledge others in the process as their hard work and creativity has inspired you to reach this level, so it’s essential to acknowledge and applaud others.
Transformation is a cyclical process which needs to keep evolving to ensure your growth stays positive and affects other actions in daily life.
It certainly has improved my focus, patience and happiness quotient as I chose only the things I embrace, as Self-love is all about Self-evolution.
Although I do say it’s a cyclical process, there are some inhibitions which I really want to shed to bring out more from within me. There are certain internal fears (like demons) which stop me from realizing my other goals. Here is the link to my short poem on another post which sheds light on my fears and highlights what would I do if I was my Bravest Self. Go on and read it. Try to do some poetry out there!
