What It Really Means to Love Yourself: 3 Aspects of a Deeper Self-Care

We often hear that it's important to love yourself. Sounds good, right? But what does it actually mean to love and care for yourself?

For some people, self-love might mean taking a warm bath or pampering themselves with a massage or manicure, which might help us. Yet, the elusive self-love that we seek requires something deeper.

Self-love means finding peace within ourselves — resting comfortably within the depths of our being. We might find temporary respite by doing something to nurture ourselves. But a deeper inner peace requires cultivating a certain way of being with ourselves — a warm and nurturing attitude toward what we experience in life.

The suggestions that follow are derived from Focusing, developed by Dr. Eugene Gendlin. Sometimes called the Focusing Attitude, this is simply a way of being nonjudgmentally kind, present, and mindful toward whatever we happen to be experiencing.

Gendlin has stated, "The client's attitudes and responses to the felt sense need to be those of a client-centered therapist." In other words, we need to have empathy and unconditional positive regard for whatever we are experiencing inside.

http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2015/08/22/what-it-really-means-to-love-yourself-3-aspects-of-a-deeper-self-care/