5 Benefits of Loving Yourself, and What to Can Expect
We all are valuable and worthwhile human beings—not just when someone else thinks so. The self-worth we believe in can take us to the core of living a fulfilling life; here are some benefits of loving yourself that you might encounter on the way.
“Many people feel small because they’re small and the universe is big, but I feel big because my atoms came from those stars. There’s a level of connectivity. That’s really what you want in life: You want to feel connected; you want to feel relevant; you want to feel like you’re a participant in the goings on of activities and events around you. That’s precisely what we are, just by being alive.” – Neil deGrasse Tyson
Our worth cannot be measured in numbers, mistakes, challenges, or even experiences.
“We all belong”
Love is sewn into our soul; so we cannot fail to earn it, or really be without it. That’s closer to our truth than any unloving perceptions anyone would try to convince us of.
When we realize, that we are both imperfect and perfect because you’re alive in an all-inclusive universe; we are only human, made of stardust. :-).
We are all a Work in Progress
Being a work in progress is a beautiful thing; it’s worthy of celebration, not condemnation:
Just by being here, and being you, brings something new to the world that wasn’t here before.
What’s it like to be you when you’re not judging yourself?
What’s it like to want to grow and evolve and expand, yet appreciate yourself as you are before the improvements?
Allow yourself the space to consider self-loving perceptions and make sacred connections with the core of who you are.
When you do this, you’ll notice many powerful shifts inside of you.
5 Benefits of Loving Yourself for Who You Are, Where You Came from, and Where You Can Go
1. Courage to continue.
Being yourself as completely as you can, moment after moment builds the strength to keep going in a world that can be devastatingly difficult to maneuver. Nobody has all the answers, after all, and what self-love does is fill us up with enough courage to be genuine, to admit what we don’t know, and to enjoy the learning process.
Challenges and anxieties seem to be a natural side effect of being a human on earth, but loving ourselves eases the pressure we feel to figure everything out all at once.
2. Compassion as Self-Care
When we soften the way we view ourselves, we learn to shift our gaze to how we can contribute to a better life. One of the more necessary benefits of loving yourself, I think, is that you become more passionate about being a compassionate individual—the world needs more of that.
Learning from our mistakes with less judgment and more love opens us up to new ways of helping others navigate their own difficulties.
With a deeper compassionate stance, it also becomes easier to adapt to changes and recover from setbacks.
You’re an intricate piece of the whole, but you’re also an expression of the whole, meaning that you’re not just in the universe but that the universe is also in you. Loving yourself is an acknowledgment that you’re alive on purpose, and so it encourages you to live with greater purpose and more compassion for everyone you’re connected to.
3. Comfort in your own skin.
A weight is lifted from our shoulders when we allow ourselves to be comfortable with who we are (even if we can’t logically figure out every detail about who we are). Our marriage to the mysteries of life undoubtedly makes it easier to live inside ourselves, for we’re all in this together.
Embracing yourself in the present moment unchains you from the past and offers solace in the unknown. We can find comfort at this moment, wherever we happen to be because this moment holds the space for everything (even the mysteries of being alive).
For me, the holy moment is when I enjoy my own company.
4. Positivity, opens new doors.
Practice trusting your own inner guidance system, and you’ll notice a shift in all your relationships. Where there is more love, there is more honesty, more ease, and more faith in what can happen.
I’ve found that showing myself more compassion has graced me with the presence of supportive friends, new opportunities, and unplanned joy. Love breeds more love; that is its nature, and it can be your nature.
5. Fulfillment of your core needs and desires.
I think what we all really crave is a connection like Neil deGrasse Tyson said (in the quote at the beginning of this post).
When we grant ourselves a more loving perception, what’s really happening is that we’re allowing love to flow through us, unrestricted. As it happens, self-love inevitably leads to a higher love for all. It’s easy to forgive others when we’ve forgiven ourselves.
We can accept the core of someone even if we don’t agree with their behavior, and honor that in them which is also in us (because we’re made of the same stuff, we come from the same source, we’re an expression of the same life).
If the root of all needs and desires is to feel connected, in a grand way, to all that is around us, then loving ourselves gives us a greater capacity to fulfill everything we could ever hope for in a lifetime on earth.
Love in all its forms opens up new doors, makes friends out of strangers, comforts us, strengthens us, and gives us the courage to contribute.
From the place of feeling worthy of life because we’re alive, we’re more connected to our truth.
In our truth, we are connected to every living being.