See, self love (to me) is still these things but there's more to it. I see self love as a tiered cake.
You have your bottom layer, it is the largest. That is where your bath bombs, face masks and eating chocolate fall under. This is a great first step. These are what get you thinking about self love. They give you a gateway to your night of relaxation.
The middle layer takes those elements a bit further. It's your self-reflection. This isn't what you usually put all over your Instagram story. It's analyzing how happy you are and why your answer is what it is. I think a lot of times people will hop into the bath tub with a book and think their problems will melt away, and they do for a time. But then the bath water turns cold and you have to get up. Use this tier of the cake to look at what you've accomplished and what makes you proud. However, also use this tier to reflect on what is stressing you out and what is draining you. Identifying these factors can sometimes lessen their affect on you. Self-reflection is SUCH an important part of self love. This tier of the cake leads us to the top and final tier.
The top layer is what you do after you've done your face mask and pondered some questions. This is what I like to call the action part of the cake. What are you going to do with the information you learned about yourself? As a writer, I find it helpful for me to journal. I've kept a journal since 8th grade and I find it very therapeutic to write out how I'm feeling (it's also neat to be able to flip through different notebooks and see where you were at a certain day of your life so many years ago). My journal is a place where I can ramble, unload my problems, or celebrate the positive moments, while I do still highly suggest talking out these things, it's nice to have a place to put everything into just for myself. Take action to improve on your daily life. That action truly just depends on you-- do you want to try to give yourself one night a week to do absolutely nothing? Do you want to put your time into a volunteer organization? Do you want to spend more time with your loved ones? There is always a small thing you can do to enhance how you feel.
Life is too short to feel constantly overwhelmed. Do what is best for you. Start off with that bubble bath and a good book-- that is still so incredibly important to having "me time," but I encourage you to take it a little further. Look inwards and I think you'll eventually see that shift outwards, too.
Until next time,
Taylor xx
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