20 Empowering Spiritual Reasons to Start Loving Yourself
Self-love gets confused at times with narcissism. Loving yourself doesn’t mean you’re self-centered or only thinking about yourself. It doesn’t mean railroading other people in order to get what you want. It’s about taking care of yourself in the best way possible. It means owning your own power and acting from a place of kindness towards yourself. This way, you are ready to love others, having revitalized your own spirit.
This is what happens when we love ourselves:
- Renewing our spirits: we let go of negative forces in our lives, like blame, shame, and anger. We place the space with positive influences, such as ownership, creation, and power.
- Empowering ourselves: instead of miring ourselves in self-doubt, we feel, hear, and believe in our power. The opinions of others don’t count for anything; what matters is how we feel about ourselves.
- Giving ourselves peace: our spirits are still and calm. We accept ourselves — including our strengths and weaknesses — unconditionally.
- Owning our lives: responsibility for our own actions is a key part of any spiritually mature person’s life. We recognize that we are the source of all happiness. We are the source of the power to change our futures, careers, relationships, passion, compassion, empathy and authenticity. We have the power to change our own lives.
- Connecting with the world around us: we let go of loneliness and embrace a deeper connection and sense of oneness with the world, people included.
- Living to our potential: we allow ourselves to show up in the world and live our purpose. We aren’t afraid to pursue what fulfills us.
- Overflow of our love to others: the more we look at ourselves with love, the more we practice love and acceptance toward those around us. We let go of thoughts that negate our reality (ideas of what people should be or how they ought to react), and we become lovers of what is, accepting it and people.
- Embracing our humanity: we understand that we aren’t perfect and we allow ourselves to be human. We accept the mistakes and failures we have, and we invite vulnerability into our lives.
- Being enough for ourselves: proving ourselves in the eyes of others is not worth our time. We understand that we don’t need to impress anyone. We know that we are enough.
- Living courageously: we are no longer ruled by fear, because we know that love is the strongest power of all. When we choose love over fear, we become stress-free beings and improve the overall quality of our lives.
- Living freely: we let go of competition and comparing ourselves to others. Therefore, we’ll always be enough.
- Living creatively: when we love ourselves, we give birth to creativity, inspiration and openness. We inspire our hearts again to follow what our spirits celebrate.
- Accepting our lives: we understand reality instead of blaming and fighting it, because we know that love is in every corner. We hold on to our lives with a loose, loving grip.
- Bringing harmony to others: We attract accord, peace, spaciousness, and significance in our relationships. The self knows how to love better, and spreads it to other people.
- Accepting failure: we find courage to accept failure because we know that it is one step closer to growth, and our significance isn’t dependent on what we produce.
- Letting ourselves grow: we let go of keeping ourselves small in this world and allow growth instead, just like the tree that grows to provide shade and food for an infinite number of people. The more we grow, the more we spread love and joy.
- Handling stress: when we love ourselves, we become aware of our stressful thoughts and how we react when think them. We question their truthfulness and we choose to turn them around and invite stillness instead into our lives.
- Securing ourselves: We feel safe because we know that we will always be right here for ourselves.
- Dazzling naturally: we shine without working for it or fighting to get it.
- Living abundantly: we move from scarcity to abundance in every area of life without the need to fight or push to get it.
About the Author
10 Signs That You're a Free Spirit
When we think of the term, “free spirit,” we imagine a person who steers their own course in life, unencumbered by common burdens or concerns. Some look at those who identify as free spirits as being irresponsible or childish, though this mindset offers lessons to inform us how we can live life on our own terms.Â
If you’re someone who considers yourself an independent thinker or doer, who pushes against society’s envelope and is deeply committed to finding your own path, you may be a free spirit. Are you curious as to whether the free spirit path is for you?
Ten Signs You’re A Real Free Spirit
If you identify with any of these signs, chances are you have a free spirit waiting to be let loose into the world!Â
1. You’re Independent-Minded
Independent people thrive on listening to their own voices, regardless of the situation or circumstance. This key personality trait of the free spirit is a common one in innovators, entrepreneurs, and creative artists, as an independent streak also relies on a strong foundation and belief in oneself.
Are you the person in the room who always finds a new way of looking at things? Free spirits defy expectations and will always see the unexpected in equally unlikely ways. These kinds of thinkers can be great assets on a creative team, as they will always find a new way to look at an idea. Free spirits are also incredible advocates for innovation, as they are not afraid to stand up and for their ideas, no matter how much it veers from the rest of the crowd.
2. Fear Doesn’t Stop You
Dale Carnegie said, “Do the thing you fear to do and keep on doing it… that is the quickest and surest way ever yet discovered to conquer fear.” Free spirits feel fear, but they don’t allow that feeling to be something that stops them. Instead, a free spirit will work through the fear and let it serve as a motivating factor. In fact, most free spirits will tell you that any success is not worth having unless it’s achieved with a healthy dose of moving through fear.
3. You Have a Strong Spine.
While it can be said that free spirits go with the flow of life, they accomplish it with a healthy and strong sense of self. This translates into living with intention and purpose and one that is not defined by anyone else. A free spirit walks the talk and in many cases, creates the language that makes up the talk.
4. Free From Attachment
To live as a free spirit, one has to be willing to let go, or walk away from the things that might weigh others down such as conventional relationships, careers, and other traditional trappings of modern life.
You might find a free spirit selling their material goods and living in a van, or not staying tethered to one place for very long. Or perhaps a free spirit may choose to live simply with a commitment to not participating in consumerism. Minimalism is often a choice of free spirits as this lifestyle embodies freedom from many of the things that weigh us down. Free spirits enjoy their own company and thrive on solo time, and putting themselves first.
