psychology
5 tips for more self-love
© Iryna Imago / Shutterstock
Preaching self-love is easy, but actually living it is all the more difficult. We have a few practical tips for you that really help – including advice from Guido Maria Kretschmer personally.
Loving others is easy for us. Most of the time it even happens by itself, we don’t have to and can’t do anything about it and there it is, this diffuse feeling of affection. When we watch our best friend telling us about her day while we hug our grandmother or when our partner gives us a satisfied smile. In other people it is usually even the small imperfections that we particularly appreciate. The little mistakes they make, the quirks and quirks that make them human, approachable and special to us. With us, however, love is one of those things.
Self-love has been preached so much in recent years that it should actually be flowing through our veins like blood. Everywhere we are told that we should accept our body and ourselves as we are, the common ideal of beauty is being thrown overboard and individualization is a top priority. But although we talk a lot about it, self-love is not that easy to achieve. At home, when we are alone, it is sometimes difficult for us. Not only when we stand in front of the mirror, but also when we lie awake at night and pick apart the smallest words that we would have preferred to say or hold back during the day.
Self-love is not just about accepting your body. In addition to the outside, the acceptance of our inside also plays a major role. In our meritocracy, we are so wired to get ahead that we tend to forget to swim at our own pace. How can we learn to recognize, accept and follow our own needs? This is the heart of self-love – and it doesn’t get stronger overnight. Rather, it requires regular training. We have a few exercises for you that we do every day – including insider tips from Guido Maria Kretschmer personally. And as is well known, training is best done together. do you join
Practice a yoga flow daily
In recent years, yoga has become a competition that completely contradicts the core of the philosophy: Yoga is about being with you. No comparisons. No looks at the mat next door. It’s not about who gets their hands on the ground first, it’s about how your body feels and what personal boundaries it shows us. Above all, yoga flows help to clear your head and listen to yourself. The sequence of a flow is based on the rhythm of breathing and is therefore like a dynamic meditation in which you contract and feel each part of the body once. It really works – even if it’s only 10 minutes.
Discover your own crème de la crème
This self-love ritual is easy to incorporate into everyday life – and Guido Maria Kretschmer personally recommended it to us in an interview:
“I’m a big fan of touching and applying lotion. Then you had everything in your hand once a day and you know: this is my body, this is my now. That’s how you develop a completely different contact with your body,” he said designers advised us. And we test it out right away, not only does our self-confidence thank us, but also our skin.
Feel the wind, sun or rain on your face once a day
Sounds poetic, but anyone who has ever had a good blow on the North Sea knows: the weather helps. And in both directions. The sun’s rays on the skin ensure that we automatically feel comfortably warm, wind and water wake us up. This ritual is primarily based on mindfulness: go outside once a day, feel the weather and yourself again, pause. Plus: In nature, your own problems often seem very small.
Ban and replace one malicious Insta account daily
Social media can make self-love difficult or easy – it’s in our hands. That’s why we part with a subscribed Instagram channel every day, which damages our self-confidence. And subscribe to one that is better for us – with more realism.
Giving friends an imperfect compliment
When your best friend tells you about a flaw, we often realize that we would never have noticed it. By giving our fellow human beings more honest compliments, we strengthen ourselves at the same time – because we learn bit by bit that the lovable lies in the imperfect. We don’t have to love our belly rolls. But we don’t have to hate ourselves for them either, because they don’t define us. As Guido Maria Kretschmer said:
If I have one tip, it would be that we should simply accept what is supposedly imperfect, both in ourselves and in others. I think you should always be your own biggest fan.