Garlic for the energy vampires: live like you love yourself

So, when I feel a lot of self-hatred I want to roll over and go back to sleep. But because I’ve been writing morning pages every morning (3 long-hand pages of all my thoughts) I’ve actually been exploring my self-hatred when it comes up and I’ve realized two things:

I don’t know who I’m doing it for and it’s actually quite lazy.

I don’t know who I’m doing it for because it’s obviously not doing me any favors to beat myself up, and it’s not done for Gods benefit since He made me and wants me to thrive, and it’s not done for my husband since it doesn’t improve our relationship.

Sometimes it’s easy to play the victim card for some attention. But what benefit does it have when you’re just alone in your thoughts and there’s no one there to pity you?

Also, it’s lazy because it’s the easy choice to wear sweats so I can beat myself up about that later instead of choosing to dress like I love myself and reap the benefits of feeling good about myself all day.

It’s easy to give up. To feel like, “well, I tried,” when I gave it the barest effort. Often the feeling hits the first 20 minutes of the day.

So, I’m trying to live more like I love myself. I write out what I would do if I loved myself and I do some of those things. By writing it out I have it in the back of my mind so that I can aim for it.

And here’s a list of a few things that make me feel like I love myself:

Brushing my teeth and showering

Enjoying putting on all my lotions and oils

Wearing a good outfit instead of glorified pajamas

Putting my earrings on

Drinking water and taking my vitamins

Practicing French

Sitting on the floor instead of the couch

Taking walks alone or with someone

Stretching

Doing a workout

Studying positivity

Eating delicious food

Cleaning the kitchen

Having sex and practicing letting go

Taking care of my plants

Practicing ukulele

Writing

Listening to music that makes me want to dance

It seems like taking a tiny bit of extra effort for self care, moving my body, and learning new things can massively improve how I feel about myself. So, it seems worth it to try. I want to keep trying.

What makes you feel better? What do those things have in common? How can you live more like you love yourself?