Self-Care vs Self-Love: What Truly Nourishes You

Hi everyone.

I wanted to talk to you today about the difference between self-care and self-love because I think it's something that,

You know,

There's a little bit of confusion around.

I know I certainly used to really equate self-care with self-love.

So,

For example,

I used to,

You know,

I'm looking back about 10 years ago now,

So I would,

You know,

I'd eat really healthily,

I'd exercise,

I'd do all those things,

But I didn't really love myself,

You know.

And ultimately,

I actually got very sick because I didn't look after my mind.

So everything I was doing for myself physically was fantastic.

But if you're not speaking kindly to yourself and,

You know,

You berate yourself,

Or maybe you're in unhealthy relationships and you don't have healthy boundaries,

This is where we can really,

You know,

We can really sort of start to fall down.

And for myself personally,

What happened was it actually played out physically.

So I actually got very sick physically and I literally had to stop.

I had to really address what was going on with my mind.

So coming back to that self-care,

Like self-care is beautiful.

Like we need to do that as a part of self-love.

So all those beautiful practices,

Like how you nourish your body,

Your exercise,

You know,

Maybe you love essential oils or buying yourself flowers,

All those things are really beautiful and essential as a part of our self-care.

But what I really want to sort of encourage is to start looking at how you actually give yourself self-love.

What words do you use when you speak to yourself?

Do you speak to yourself kindly?

Are you compassionate?

Are you,

You know,

When you make a mistake,

Do you,

Rather than berate yourself,

Do you speak kindly and encouragingly?

Are you able to prioritize yourself?

You know,

Often,

Particularly as women,

We don't prioritize ourselves.

We put everyone else first.

And if you are not able to give yourself that self-love and that nourishment,

It's really,

You're really actually not able to be there for other people if your cup is kind of half full.

So when we really develop that compassion for ourselves,

That self-love,

That kindness,

We're able to create those healthy boundaries.

We're able to say no when things aren't,

You know,

Aren't right for us.

We are able to nurture and nourish ourselves from the inside.

We really speak kindly.

We watch what we say to ourselves.

And if we notice we're beating ourselves up,

We change that conversation.

And really,

It's this ability as well to honor your humanness.

We're all human.

We all,

None of us are perfect.

We all make mistakes.

And we really,

When life doesn't go well,

Really being able to honor that humanness.

And in those moments,

That's where you have the opportunity to really be kind.

And the kinder that we can be to ourselves,

That ultimately flows out to others.

If we're compassionate to us,

And we can love ourselves,

Then we can also really extend that love to other people,

Which is really important as well.