“If only you could sense how important you are to the lives of those you meet; how important you can be to people you may never even dream of. There is something of yourself that you leave at every meeting with another person.” ~Fred Rogers

Are you running yourself ragged to help others too often? Do you feel exhausted and overwhelmed on a consistent basis? Does the idea of self-love to you seem frivolous? Do you think “self-love” means just taking a bubble bath each night and pampering yourself (which you don’t have time to do)?

If so, you aren’t alone! That is because there has been a lack of clarity presented to you about self-love. Self-love is not just about pampering yourself (at least not completely, anyway!). Self-love is also not about only loving yourself and neglecting the needs of others who need you. Self-love is treating yourself at least as well as you treat your loved ones, and it is something you should practice every day.

5 Ways You Know You Need to Practice More Self-Love

Let’s now go over 5 things that you do that mean you need to focus on loving yourself just a little more.

1. Living Your Truth

You have your own values, likes, dislikes, dreams, and you have your own beliefs. There are plenty of others around who don’t share the same values and beliefs as you. If you give up what is true to you by trying to make others happy, then you are not living your truth. That is a lack of self-love. You will end up becoming miserable and resentful if you don’t live your truth. You deserve better than that so go and live your truth, even if that means upsetting someone else.

2. Always Putting Your Wants At The Backburner

When you are a mom to young kids or when you are caring for elderly parents, you will have to make sacrifices. At times you will need to put your wants on hold if they will interfere with your responsibilities. But that does not mean to ever put them completely on the backburner to forget about them as if they never counted for anything. Making a responsible plan to go after them is what you need to do as that is a form of self-love. You are acknowledging that you have responsibilities but you are also acknowledging that your wants and desires are just as important as your responsibilities as well.

3. Neglecting Your Needs

Another thing that busy moms and others who are caring for others unfortunately do is neglecting their needs. This means they sacrifice sleep, alone time so they can recharge, and doing things that make them happy and sane. If you are neglecting your needs for the sake of having to care for others or for pleasing others, that is a lack of self-love. Your needs are just as important as those who you are caring for. That will also quickly lead to burnout. Burnout is more likely to happen as a result of a lack of self-love.

4. Living A Poor Lifestyle

Are you eating junk food and living a sedentary lifestyle? Are you indulging in bad habits such as smoking? Then that also is a lack of self-love. Self-love is nourishing your body by eating healthy, exercising, and working on getting rid of addictions. Also, it involves getting enough rest so you stay healthy.

5. Not Accepting Who You Are

If you are constantly finding faults with yourself, then you do not accept who you are. Accepting who you are, the good, the bad, the ugly, is what self-love is about.

And the ultimate way to give yourself self-love is by knowing that you are worthy and living that truth as well!

This video offers a gentle reminder about why it’s so very important to take care of and love yourself!