Mondays can be rough for many of us, and this doesn’t create the ideal environment for building a better body image. To help you turn that around, every Monday features a tip, activity, inspiring quote or some other tidbit to help boost your body image – and kick-start the week on a positive note.

Got a tip for improving body image? Email me at mtartakovsky at gmail dot com, and I’ll be happy to feature it. I’d love to hear from you!

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We’ve already talked many times about the importance of self-love for a positive body image. Of course, self-love is important for all areas of our lives.

Without self-love, we might be stuck, feeling negative, making choices that don’t suit us (or worse dishonor us), over-stretching ourselves (and not respecting our boundaries) and just not taking fantastic care of ourselves.

Last week, Sui of the amazing blog Cynosure wrote a beautiful and poignant post about what self-love means to her.

Today, I wanted to share with you several excerpts, because, for one, they’re incredibly inspiring. And, two, this is an important topic that we should think more about. And keep coming back to.

Take some time this week to make your own list about what self-love means to you.

Once you can name what it means and commit it to paper, you’ll have a better idea of what you want and how you want to care for yourself.

I think you can absolutely cultivate self-love, regardless of where you start. If you don’t love yourself very much just yet or you’re not sure about the meaning, think about what this would look like. It’s a great first step.

Onto Sui’s words… at first, she explains what self-love isn’t, which I found interesting (and powerful):

Loving yourself isn’t just about feeling good in YOUR body. Loving yourself isn’t just about being yourself & accepting yourself. Loving yourself isn’t just about looking in the mirror and being able to smile at yourself each morning.

Loving yourself isn’t just a feeling. Loving yourself is a commitment.

When you view self-love as a commitment, it’s something that informs your actions, your every day. It’s not an either-you-have-it-or-you-don’t sort of thing. It’s something you strive for day in, day out.

It’s something you practice. And I love that.

I think self-love can be a very overwhelming concept. For many of us, it sounds so abstract and foreign. But looking at self-love as a commitment to yourself helps you realize that it’s doable.

Yes, it’s hard. No doubt about it. But we can strive to make this deep commitment to ourselves.

In her post, Sui then describes a multitude of things that self-love is. Here are my fave parts (be sure to check out the whole post!):

Loving yourself is refusing to use words to bring yourself down. Loving yourself is refusing to deny your own awesomeness. Loving yourself is refusing to insult or otherwise demean yourself. Loving yourself is accepting the compliments & having convenient hearing loss when someone is being vicious.

Loving yourself is using kind words, to yourself & others. Loving yourself is recognizing your own unique nature & being happy with it, & recognizing the unique nature of others & being happy that they are them.

…

Loving yourself is realizing that the world is full of infinite abundance, yours for the taking. Loving yourself is realizing that you are more than your body– that you are much, much more than anything you ever dreamed of.

…

Loving yourself is being honest and vulnerable to others, knowing that you are strong & worthy of love no matter what you could reveal about yourself to someone else.

Loving yourself is eating only what you are excited to eat, not settling for something just because it’s there, and eating when your body needs sustenance. Loving yourself is enjoying your food & eating mindfully, paying attention to what you put into your precious body. Loving yourself is honoring your hunger.

…

Loving yourself is refusing to settle. Loving yourself is saying no to what is unimportant to you. Loving yourself is letting go of friends or family who don’t treat you wonderfully. Loving yourself is sprinting your way out of any relationship that makes you feel threatened, unsafe, lowered, unworthy, controlled…

Loving yourself is knowing that you are worthy. Worthy of living passionately, worthy of enjoying your life, worthy of focusing on what excites you, worthy of letting go of anything that holds you down, worthy of doing whatever is necessary for you to be healthy & thriving, worthy of the very best.

What does self-love mean to you? What does it look like? Do you think the definition of self-love changes with the years or should it remain the same?

P.S., I want to thank everyone so much for commenting on last Monday’s post! I really enjoyed reading your responses to the incomplete sentences, and it’s so awesome of you to share them with us!

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    Last reviewed: 2 May 2011