Self-care has been one of the most blatant topics of conversation in our society lately.  It’s all about making sure your mental health is given serious attention, indulging in the things that make you happy, and appreciating who you are…especially in the state of this crazy country of ours.

Inevitably, when one considers self-care, self-love isn’t too far off. Because why take care of yourself if you don’t love yourself? Why work out, take bubble baths, or have that one cheat meal if you don’t love yourself?

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Now, I’m sure you know you should love yourself.

But do you so? Truly? It’s pretty difficult to love yourself, especially when the understanding of its importance is not fully realized.

Loving yourself is incredibly integral for multiple reasons. When you love yourself…

1. You are free from the desire of attention and acceptance. Your relationships with others will derive from your great heart, not a great need to be liked. When you love yourself, you realize the treatment you deserve. You don’t happily give into manipulation because you know you are more than being used. You treasure yourself to not willingly be taken advantage of. Loving yourself means having the ability to give yourself healthily. You are able to give people more of what they need and less of what they want. Quite simply: people pleasing wouldn’t be your jam. Loving yourself means having the ability to give yourself healthily. Click To Tweet
2. You attract. This is actually science! The Law of Attraction, ya’ll. When you love yourself, it attracts healthy relationships. And this is because…
3.  It radiates out. When you love yourself, people can see it. It’s a beauty that no beat face can actually…beat. It takes your beauty to a whole other level. Loving yourself is a beauty that no beat face can actually...beat. Click To Tweet
4. Forgiving yourself becomes a lighter task. We all make mistakes. Sometimes, the mistakes are so ugly that we can’t forget. Sometimes, we don’t want to forget. So we punish ourselves with replays and constantly beating ourselves up.When you love yourself, you can learn to forgive “yourself” for the abuse you experienced, you can forgive yourself for how you hurt whomever, you can forgive yourself for anything at all. It won’t be easy, but it definitely beats trying to forgive yourself when you don’t even like yourself!
5. You have the ability to begin to accept your shortcomings and imperfections. When you love yourself, your critical eye becomes less harsh. You learn to love and accept rather than doubt and insult. You are able to celebrate the things you like and don’t like, while striving to become better. When you love yourself, you become your best friend. You become someone you can rely on. This leads to taking it upon yourself to take risks! Your flaws won’t keep you from fighting for your dreams. When you love yourself, your flaws won't keep you from fighting for your dreams. Click To Tweet
6. You love correctly. We can’t love correctly if we don’t love ourselves. As I was doing research and studying for this post, I came across a verse we all know too well: The Second Greatest Commandment. It says, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” What pique my interest was the fact that I didn’t quite place much emphasis on “as yourself” prior to preparing this post. Most of us don’t even realize that God is telling us to first love ourselves in this verse! Joyce Meyer said it best, “You cannot give away something you don’t have in you. How can someone love another person if they don’t love themselves?”
7. Become grounded in who God says you are. Ensuring that we make ourselves “feel good” shouldn’t be our aim in life because it takes away from focusing on Christ. You should love you because He loves you. He knows you by name, queen (John 10:3)! How can you build your relationship with Him if you don’t like how He created you?

You should love yourself because God said so.

Whether or you believe it or not, you were made in His image (Gen 1:27) …which automatically makes you pretty awesome. He loves you so much He sent His Son to die for you (John 3:16) so you could live a beautiful life as the beautiful being you are.

You are everythang, girl. Ev-ry-THANG!

Top – H&M

Skirt – Zara

Boots – Aldo

Photos by Dexterity Photography