With the kids home from school, temperatures rising and beach body diets popping up all over, we all know summer is here. While summer has its upsides: warmer weather for activities, fun summer holidays, quality time with the family, and summer vacations; it also has its downsides. Summer happens to be the season when people struggle with self-love the most. Let us help you switch your perspective and make this the summer of self-love.
What Is Self-Love?
Self-love is the act of accepting and loving yourself for who you are, flaws and all. It's a relationship everyone cultivates at their own pace and may take some time to get comfortable with loving yourself. Just like any relationship, the relationship with yourself takes time and that's perfectly okay. If you want to learn more about self-love (and want to see some ways to begin cultivating self-love) check out this blog.
Summer of Self-Love
While self-love is important to practice throughout the year, summertime can be an especially difficult time to start or continue on the path of self-love. Here are our hot tips to keep in mind as you continue or start your weight loss and self-love journey this summer.
Ditch The Negativity
"If you wouldn't say it to your best friend, then you shouldn't say it to yourself." Ditching negative self-talk is often easier said than done. We all have flaws and areas we can grow. While it's good to be aware of this, it's also negative to be constantly reminding ourselves of the bad. Negative self-talk tends to lower self-esteem and can get you feeling down pretty quickly. To combat the negative self-talk, it's important to be aware of how much you engage in it. Grab a journal and start tracking how often you think or speak negatively about yourself. You might surprise yourself with how quickly your tallies add up over the course of just a few hours. Now that you are aware, start cutting back on that self-negativity. This is a difficult step and it will take time as you break this habit, but we promise it is so worth it. Once you no longer speak or think about yourself in a negative light, you are able to let in the self-love.
Be Your Own Hype-Girl/ Guy
Now that you are clearing the path for self-love, it is a great opportunity to start hyping yourself up and feeling the love. Start practicing positive self-talk, even if it is on a small scale like being proud you took the stairs instead of the elevator this morning or telling your friend or partner about how you walked during lunch today. This can feel a little bit like bragging, but there is no shame in hyping yourself up and celebrating all the little things you are doing for yourself. Talk to yourself kindly and happily point out all the great and positive things you do. This will make you feel great about all you do and make you more likely to repeat positive behaviors.
Remember Every Body Is A Swimsuit-Ready Body
You don't need a crazy crash diet or to start hitting the gym 3 times a day (more to come on this) for the next month to have a body worth wearing swimwear. Every body, as is, can and should wear a swimsuit this summer! Don't hold yourself to unrealistic standards or push yourself to an extreme. Instead, celebrate where you are now and ditch the "beach-body" standards. We promise no one talks about what you look like in swimwear more than yourself (we also hope after tip 2 that all the things you're saying are positive! )
Don't Exercise For Vanity
With society's pressure to look a certain way in swimwear, you might have a new desire to hit the gym. Keeping a healthy relationship with any type of physical activity and ensuring you aren't pushing yourself too hard is important for longevity. Doing too much too fast is not only making you more prone to injury but can burn you out quickly. Like anything in life, balance is key here and there is no need to push yourself to a crazy extreme for just a season. Adopt healthy habits like working out for the long term with the goal to begin improving your overall health year-round.
Create An Environment That Feeds Self-Love
We know social media this time of year is full of people on the beach, wearing more revealing clothing, and "living their best lives". This can easily lead to a comparison game and make you feel like you aren't doing summer right. It's crucial to remember social media is often a highlight reel of people's lives, and we can assure you their lives aren't as amazing as they make it seem. Instead of getting trapped in the comparison game, curate an environment that feeds self-love. Only follow social accounts that make you feel good about yourself or ditch social media entirely for the summer. Surround yourself with people who uplift you and support you on this self-love journey and lean on them for support and accountability.
Building new habits into your routine that help you practice self-love, even if they are seasonal, is a great way to make you feel your best this summer and every summer to come. We hope that you take these self-love tips and practice them all year round and continue to nurture this precious relationship with yourself. Remember, taking baby steps is better than taking no steps at all.
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