During challenging life experiences like loss or divorce, self-love can feel especially hard. Jeff Crume, our Circles Guide who specializes in relationships and personal development, offers tips for practicing self-love within difficult times. For Valentines Day, we have free audio-only groups for those seeking community after divorce or loss of a loved one. Join us here!
The questions we always come back to in our groups is:
-Who are you, truly? Do you know?
And:
-Do you love who you know?
Self-love is one of the most important and life-changing journeys one can embark on. If you find yourself, like many, struggling with self-love during challenging times, keep hope! It’s never too late to practice self-love.
Here are some ways to get through the hardest parts of the journey.
- EXAMINE yourself with kindness: Self acceptance asks for radical self examination. Get curious, and get to the core of who you believe that you are. Not who you pretend to be, not who you think other people want you to be, but who you truly believe you are. Then, when you learn these things about yourself, practice honoring and accepting what you discover.
- FORGIVE yourself. Much of self love is an act of forgiveness – forgiving oneself for all the times we feel we failed or fell short. A heavy heart doesn’t feel deserving of forgiveness, and can push away the very thing it so deeply seeks. We can spend lifetimes chasing forgiveness from others, when major healing comes from forgiving yourself first.
- QUALITY TIME with yourself: Spend intentional, quality time with yourself. Use that time to hang out with yourself like you would a friend. Use that time to discover your own brilliance and recognize your grace. We live in a world that constantly bombards us with images of perfection, making us feel inadequate and not good enough. As a result, we develop low self-esteem, self-doubt, and a lack of self-worth. Spend time with yourself to remember all the things about you you love most.
- POSITIVE COMMUNITY: Surround yourself with positive people: The people we surround ourselves with have a profound impact on our self-esteem and self-worth. Seek out friends and family members who support, encourage, and uplift you. Limit your time with those who don’t. (Our Circles app has so many positive, encouraging groups for you to join!)
If you find yourself, like many, struggling with self-love during challenging times, keep hope! It’s never too late to start nourishing your inner self and cultivating the self-love you deserve.
Note: For Valentines Day, we have free audio-only groups for those seeking community after divorce or loss of a loved one. Join us here!
Jeff Crume is a Circles Support Group Facilitator and seasoned mental health professional with over fifteen years of experience in areas including grief and crisis, relationship challenges, life coaching and personal development. Jeff has been helping people navigate their way through life, and he finds inspiration in witnessing people’s self-discovery of their innate power. A husband and father of four children, Jeff enjoys sipping a warm cup of coffee while watching the sunrise in the mornings and chasing the sunsets on his mountain bike in the evenings.
