7 Ways To Learn To Love Yourself Unconditionally

By Lilian Wamaitha
Most of us don’t believe that love without reservations exists. When we look in the mirror, all we see are flaws, past failings, imperfections and that makes it hard to love ourselves.
But loving yourself is possible no matter how many mistakes you have made, no matter how many people have made you feel like you don’t deserve to be loved.
The first step to loving another person is learning to love yourself. And in this article I have compiled 7 ways to learn to love yourself no matter what.
1. Know yourself
The first step to personal growth is understanding yourself.
You may have countless flows, yet you can learn to embrace them and move forward.
No one is perfect and you may live your whole life trying to fit into somebody else’s shoes if you follow the logic of being perfect all the time. But one thing you will never be able to achieve is true happiness.
True happiness is in knowing that no matter how many mistakes you make, you are still human.
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2. Stop criticizing yourself
Some of us have lived all our lives belittling ourselves.
Whenever you make the slightest mistake, there is that tiny voice in your head telling you how imperfect you are.
Constantly criticizing yourself will not get you anywhere but practicing self-compassion is how you will be happy.
Let go of that need to judge yourself and instead embrace empathy.
3. Embrace your positive nature
When you only entertain positive thoughts, you learn to be kinder to yourself and your self-esteem improves.
You can only give others what is in your heart. If you are kind to yourself, then you learn to be kind to others.
Each one of us is born positive; the environment we are thrown into is what makes us bitter. But even when the environment tells you otherwise, you still have a choice to embrace positive thoughts.
4. Acknowledge your success
How do you define success?  We steal our own happiness by how we define our own success, and most of the time we define it based on how other people perceive us.
You might not have reached the level of success you had dreamt of, but you have made great strides in your life.
If you made an effort to pursue something you desired but didn’t succeed, don’t hate yourself.
Some people will not make the effort to get out of their comfort zone but will insist that success should come their way.
5. Let go of your worries
Worrying is a futile emotion that can best be spent taking appropriate action. In short, you will not achieve anything by worrying.
The more you entertain worrying thoughts; you are only creating room in your mind that will be only accommodating such thoughts.
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6. Forgive yourself
Ever heard that to forgive others, you must forgive yourself first?
No matter how much you think you have messed up in your life, learn to forgive yourself.
Some of us live our entire lives carrying around unnecessary guilt over things that we have no control over.
Everybody makes mistakes, it’s how you move on from them that makes the difference.
7. Learn to be grateful
Even if you are living under a sewer or have no way of getting by the end of the day, you have something to be grateful for.
Almost three billion people today are living below the poverty line and the number is expected to rise. So no matter how pathetic you may think your life is right now, someone somewhere is going through a worse hell.
Life is all about appreciating yourself and being grateful for what you have. But happiness does not mean comparing yourself to others and trying to live like them. It means acknowledging that you are unique, you make mistakes and your life is your own. Learn to love yourself today.
Lilian is a Communication Officer at Career Point Kenya. Email for any queries to lilian@www.careerpointkenya.co.ke