Overcoming Self-Love Obstacles

When you are learning to practice self-love, it’s only natural to encounter a few obstacles. If you’re unprepared, these can derail your progress and even discourage you. By being aware, you’ll know how to respond when they come up. So, let’s look at overcoming self-love obstacles and what to do instead when embracing this new practice.

Obstacle #1: You aren’t surrounded by positive, healthy relationships

A major obstacle to self-love is toxic people. If you are surrounded by people who drain your energy and have a negative outlook, you’re going to struggle to practice self-love.

Surround yourself with positive, healthy relationships. While no relationship is perfect, for the most part, they should lift you up and make you feel positive about yourself. So, if you have relationships that cause you more misery than happiness, now is the time to take a step back and focus on spending your time with happier, healthier people. You’ll just continue to struggle to love yourself if you are surrounded by people who make you feel bad.

Obstacle #2: Feelings of guilt and selfishness

Another big barrier to practicing self-love is feelings of guilt and selfishness. It is common to feel like self-love is selfish. This can lead to feelings of guilt when you attempt to focus more on yourself because your inner critic (and we all have one) will berate you for making positive changes.

First, you’ll need to understand the importance of self-love. It isn’t a woo-woo, new-age idea; it’s a necessity for your mental, physical, and spiritual health and wellbeing. It certainly isn’t selfish so you absolutely shouldn’t feel guilty about loving yourself more. The more you love and appreciate yourself, the more you can love and appreciate others.

Obstacle #3: Needing to be perfect

Perfectionism is a major obstacle to self-love. While a little perfectionism can be a good thing, especially in business, it can also lead to disappointment, frustration, and unhappiness.

When you feel like everything must be perfect, you are going to feel like a failure when you fall short. So, try to let go of your need to be perfect. Understand where your need for perfectionism comes from (by journaling about it) and identify your triggers. Remember, nobody is perfect so you don’t have to be perfect either.

Obstacle #4: Not understanding how to love yourself

Finally, another barrier is not understanding how to love yourself. The concept of self-love is new to many people. Most of us weren’t raised to value self-love so we don’t fully understand what self-love really means or what it looks like. A common mistake is to think self-love means being selfish and egotistical.

Loving yourself is about treating yourself with respect; it is about making sure you are fulfilling your needs in a healthy, balanced way. It includes things like taking good care of ourselves, eating a healthier diet, and engaging in a regular exercise routine. Self-care is a form of self-love. Practicing self-care is wise as is self-love.

Finding people you trust and who build you up is a big part of being able to practice self-love consistently. However, don’t forget to be your own personal cheerleader too.

These are just some of the common obstacles to self-love you need to be aware of. By being aware, you’ll find overcoming self-love obstacles comes naturally no matter what life throws at you.

Self-Love Affirmation Cards are available from my Etsy shop: Create Bliss Today.

You may also enjoy Commanding Your Morning: The Life-Changing Power of Positive Affirmations.

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