How do we value our self? Feeling good about ourselves pushes us to reach and catch those things we have longed for, the dreams we have been chasing. When we value ourselves we are loving, appreciating, understanding, and improving our personal qualities whilst not forgetting to invest time, effort and of course energy into maintaining and nurturing ourselves.
Self-value can get mixed up a little with having an ego, being selfish or neglecting others. This is so far from the truth! Appreciating our self-value is about knowing what we deserve. It’s a lot to do with that magic term we love so much, Self-Care! By giving what we need to grow and develop we are showing that we have value for ourselves.
Learning to Value Yourself
However, learning to value our self, just like self-care, takes practice, a little extra time and energy and a whole lot of doing. It’s a habit we need to form, mould, and continue, to ensure we get as many benefits from it. When we do things for our self, like exercise, eat healthy, read a book, meditate, paint our nails, we are taking that time to nurture our minds and bodies and in affect valuing ourselves. And yet when it comes to self-care we tend to put it on the long finger while the rest of the day blurs around us.
But did you know that about 70% of what we do every day is a habit? From the way we take our shower (clean hair first, then body, then shave), to how we make our tea (the white cup, herbal teabag, boiling water, leave teabag in), to what we have for breakfast (cornflakes with milk, multi-vitamins on the side). Even the walk we take to clear our head (straight down to the sea, sit for 10 minutes listening to the waves and then walk home).
Habits can be easy to break, but this is certainly one we should all do our best to start and maintain. Getting intentional about our self-care will put us on a positive path to appreciating and valuing ourselves. Habit tracking is a part of the weekly pages in the Mama Moments 2020 self-care planner. Writing something into a tracker makes us commit to its importance in black and white. Tracking how often we do it shows us the reality of our commitment and helps us strive for more.
How Do You Value Yourself?
If you were to think about it right now, and I asked you in what ways do you value yourself, what would you say? A lot of us might shrug our shoulders and say, “Em, I don’t know.” It’s an instant reaction because we don’t want to sound like we’re tooting our own horn or coming across as egotistical with buckets of self-esteem. Many of us struggle with the idea of putting value on ourselves because we don’t want to sound self-centred or that we may be putting ourselves first before our family. But if I were to break it down for you, can you relate to any of these ways in which you may already be valuing yourself? And if not, do you think you could add any of these into part of your day to create a habit in valuing yourself and nurturing yourself?
Fulfilling Emotional Health
Our emotional wellbeing is connected to so many factors from our familial situation, our work environment, the world around us and our personal values. Some we can control, others we most certainly can’t. Do you take the time to be mindful of the situations around you and own your circumstances? This may not always be easy, but when we make the best of a bad situation we are positively affecting our emotional state and valuing ourselves. Living in the moment and finding the value in every moment is so important to maintaining our self-value. We could easily live in the past, mull over our mistakes and regrets, but what is the point in leaning on history? Learn from mistakes and keep dancing to your happy tune.
Keeping Physical Wellbeing
Our physical wellbeing is a good friend of strong emotional wellbeing and health. Always remember our hearts and minds are so intricately linked. Do you exercise, eat well, visit the GP when things aren’t right? Looking after our physical wellbeing by keeping ourselves fit and healthy can be a time-consuming effort but when we look after our bodies, we positively affect our mind with good moods, positive mental health, and better sleep. And in this way, we can show ourselves that our bodies are deserving of the nurture of staying in shape and keeping strong.
Valuing Others
Self-value is not about comparison. When we compare or compete with others we enter into a world of negative emotion. Valuing ourselves, on the other hand, plays a pretty little dance with valuing others. When we devalue others, we devalue ourselves and the opposite is just as true. Do you value others, animals, the earth? By showing compassion, respect, and love to others our self-value increases. By doing things for others, and when we value others, we naturally value ourselves more. But you may not have recognised this feel-good emotion as value!
Loving Your Individuality
Do you value who you are, warts and all? Self-acceptance is a strong element of self-value. We are all unique. There is no one like you and that is pretty amazing. It’s quite easy to focus on our flaws or weaknesses considering they are often the bits we want to change. But those wonderful talents, qualities, and quirks we also have can be forgotten and hidden away. There is only one you. Embrace all of those wonderful eccentricities! Valuing yourself means revealing your magnificent self to the world and showing off the best version of you.
Remember You’re Worth It
Self-value comes from within us. It’s how we see ourselves when we react to outside influences from the world around us. But this means we have total control over our value. Are you worth it? There is only one answer to this and that is YES! Finding your worth means creating that habit of self-care to develop how you see yourself, care for yourself and grow and increase your inner sense of value. Because you are deserving. Deserving of a full and happy life with buckets of potential! Remember to value yourself.
