Real meaning of "Self-love"
What is real meaning of this ‘most-commonly-used-yet-overlooked’ term called Self-love? You can find various definitions if you Google this term, but that does not do justice to the term. Just googling it, it is not it. Everyone has to know the real meaning of the most commonly used term, whether one loves themselves or not.
As the term “Self-love” says it out loud, it obviously means loving oneself. But what I believe is that it should not end with one only caring about himself or herself and forgetting that the world ever existed. Basically, one should be balanced between loving oneself and others at the same time, or, in other words, one should know how to take care of oneself while taking care of others.
To be honest, even I have been dodging this bullet of self-love for a long time. Like many of you, I used to believe it was difficult. “Itni mehnat kon kare”, It was subconsciously there in my mind, but just like many of you, it was absent in my conscious mind. Seeing other girls asking to love themselves and promoting self-love made me want to do something for myself, but I never did anything that could be stated anywhere near this term.
Last month, I finally made up my mind and planned something. No, planning is just not it; you have to do justice to that plan. I told myself and convinced myself that it would be new and might even be difficult, but trust me, trusting the process would definitely be worth it.
I challenged myself to love myself and do things for myself and my body. A 25-day self-love challenge, I was aware of the fact that some days can be a little difficult; it won’t be easy; stepping out of your beautiful comfort zone never is! But it depends on you and how you make it easy and convenient for yourself. Because that’s what matters.
I saw many self-love challenges on social media platforms, and customized the challenge in my way. I made challenge according to my life needs and wants and I obeyed it. I already knew there might be a day or two where I might fail, but I also knew that it would just be two, three, or five days, but the ratio of successful days would eventually be higher. It was okay for me to fail a few times; I was happy with it because at least I tried. Very honestly, in those 25 days, I tried, I failed, and I succeeded. Moreover, I realized that if you do something for your body, your body will show results.
The main thing that I’ve realized throughout this beautiful time period is that if you once start caring about yourself and start loving yourself, there’s no going back. Trust me on this. The pleasure you get from loving yourself and caring for yourself is unmatched. You will definitely see differences in yourself. Obviously, it won’t be easy for you to do it very easily, and you won’t even see the results the next day itself, but you can really try and gradually learn how to care about yourself and love yourself.
~Skincare
I don’t know but for me self-love starts with a good skincare routine. Being honest, I used to follow a skin care routine, but I was not regular, due to which I really could not see any effective results. But for these 25 days, I made sure that I followed my skin care routine regularly, and I did see the results. My skin is now better than before—clear and beautiful. I mean, not really very beautiful, but yes, it definitely changed from what it was before.
~Healthy Diet
As I said, I had a really unhealthy routine, which made it obvious that I had an unhealthy diet before, but of course, during this time period, I had to have mostly healthy food. I did have junk food. I did enjoy all other masala and chatpati cheezein, but I made sure that I also maintained a healthy diet, which definitely showed better results. Also, it is the easiest way to make your skin glowy and beautiful.
~Family Time
This has a really beautiful effect on our lifestyle because you are surrounded by the people you love, including your family. It just makes you happy. I know not everyone has a great bond with the family, but if you do have a family, then trust me, you are indeed blessed and just spend time with your family. I spent time with my family, my mom, and my pet. I went out for movie with them, watched movie at home with my mom and it was great. I took my pet out for walks. She loves that, and eventually seeing her happy makes me happy.
~Sleep Schedule
Oh boy, I don’t even want to talk about that, but you know our generation is doomed. We do not sleep at all; we sleep during the day, and we stay awake the whole night, which has a really bad effect on our health. We are not even capable of living into our forties. If we continue to follow this lifestyle, which is not really a great thing, I mean, guys, if you have a bad sleep schedule, please change it. Just change it.
~Hobbies
The most underrated thing in our generation. I know we all have busy routines and everything; just try to take some time out for the things you like to do. That’s not too much. I mean, we all can have a little hectic weekdays, but we have weekends, right? I sometimes enjoy watching productive daily routines, sometimes I like to paint, and sometimes I just love to enjoy music. I did whatever I wanted to do these days, which I would not normally do, and they really made me happy.
~Going Out
Okay, I might not be the right person to talk about this because I myself am a person who avoids that a lot. But during this time period, I went out twice or three times with my family and friends, and I did have a great time. I enjoyed it. I mean, I was happy just to be out. It is not really a bad thing. You should do that once or twice a month, which is not too much, maybe less, but definitely not too much.
I already knew there might be days where I might fail, but I also knew that it would just be two, three, or five days, but the ratio of successful days would eventually be higher. It was okay for me to fail a few times; I was happy with it because at least I tried.
Very honestly, in those 25 days, I tried, I failed, and I succeeded. Moreover, I realized that if you do something for your body, your body will show results. I tried it and was not even regular for all 25 days; I even missed a few days in between, and yet my body feels happy. And all the methods that I’ve put in have shown results, even if they were only 50% of the original plan. Now, just think if I had been regular all 25 days, put efforts on all days, and my mehnat had been 100%. How happy would I have been?
This is your sign to start your journey of self-love and doing things for your own body and peace. It takes nothing but some time from your busy routine. You must be thinking, “But we don’t have time.” Okay, so you have time for the whole world but not for yourself?
These little steps towards self-love won’t take 50% of your day—just one or two hours from your day. Is that too much for your body to ask from you? I don’t think so. A little bit of everything you love and enjoy—skincare, working out, eating healthy and whatever you love, and every other thing you wish to do for yourself. Trust the facts and the process. If you once get started and regularly devote some time to loving your body, you will love doing it, and on your own, you will deliberately take time out for yourself. The world is busy thinking either about themselves or about others. So it’s you who needs to think about yourself.
Sweet reminder: Self-love does not mean you have to be selfish and forget about others, like mentioned above, self-love is all about loving oneself but balancing to love others as well.