How to Show up for Yourself
On your journey of self-love, showing up for yourself is an action that can change your life forever. When you show up for yourself, you become your own best friend and make decisions that foster your personal growth, well-being, and dreams. To show up for yourself is to invest in your habits, goals, and dreams. You invest in your body and mind, show yourself grace, and speak kindly to yourself. This life is yours; showing up for everyone else is neglecting yourself. It all starts with you. So don’t be afraid to put yourself first!
This is how to be THAT GIRL and show up for yourself:
Start with the Basics
Drinking water, eating great food, and getting a full night’s sleep are the minimum your body needs to stay active and healthy. Pack a water bottle to stay hydrated throughout the day. If you have a busy week, plan your meals to make sure you eat regular and healthy meals, and finally, create a night-time routine that will help you relax and unwind at the end of the day. To physically show up and feel your best, you need to give yourself these 3 things.
Make Time for Self-care
PSA, self-care doesn’t make you selfish or vain! Taking time to practice self-care is important for your mental and physical well-being. Self-care can be anything that makes you feel happy, healthy, relaxed, or confident. Eat well and keep your body moving, care for your hair, skin, and body, educate yourself, feed your mind, prioritise sleep, and stay hydrated. Finding little ways to make yourself feel good inside and out is self-care.
Commit to your Goals & Habits
You will begin to thrive when you commit to your goals, routines, and habits. Those who are successful and confident are so because of the habits they practice every day. Building habits and routines can be hard but, no matter how hard it is at first, you have to remind yourself of what you are working towards, the goals you want to accomplish, and the life you deserve. No one else is going to do the things that are good for you, so you have to do it and commit to the promises that you make to yourself.
“Failing to keep self-promises is one of the reasons so many of us don’t love ourselves. Not following through on what we tell ourselves we’ll do so destroys our sense of personal worth and dissolves our self-esteem. Keep behaving like that and the unconscious part of you will begin to believe you’re not worth anything." – Robin Sharma
Honor your Emotions
Allow yourself to feel every emotion without gaslighting yourself and suppressing your emotions. It’s okay to feel negative emotions, but it is also OK to be happy and feel good about yourself. Allow yourself to be mad when you're mad, vent and cry, talk to a loved one, write in your journal, or call your therapist if you need to. On the other hand, allow yourself to feel happy and proud. Laugh with your loved ones, feel excited, do something just because it makes you happy and enjoy the moment. Feeling all these emotions is part of the human experience, so be honest with how you feel and allow yourself to feel everything good and bad without judgment.
Set Boundaries
Just a reminder that setting boundaries does not make you a bad person! For all the people pleasers, this might seem impossible to understand or even change, but this is something you need to practice and implement into your life. Learn to say no, discover what gives you energy rather than drains it, and define boundaries (and stick to them), because you have to respect who you are and protect your energy. If you don’t want to do something, or you don’t want to be in a particular environment, then don’t. It’s as simple as that. Be intentional with who you surround yourself; if certain relationships aren’t healthy, certain people make you feel bad about yourself, or they don’t respect you, then you have the power to remove those people from your life. Communicate your boundaries and those who truly love and respect you will respect those boundaries, but most importantly, you'll respect yourself.
“Our boundaries define our personal space – and we need to be sovereign there to be able to step into our full power and potential.”- Jessica Moore
Give Yourself Permission to Rest
Hustle culture has taken over to the point where resting is considered lazy or unimportant. But life is about balance and with work comes rest for both your body and mind. You can’t do your best if you don’t feel your best. You don’t have to live at full speed all the time, so, take a nap, mute social media, enjoy a bath, cook a nice meal, read a book, lie in bed, watch a movie, or simply do nothing. Take time to breathe, just be, and come back to yourself, not only because you deserve it, but because your mind and body need it.
Practice Self-Forgiveness
We all make mistakes, it’s inevitable and a part of life for everyone. In the wise words of Hannah Montana herself, “nobody’s perfect.” So stop being so hard on yourself for not being “perfect”, for saying the wrong thing, for what you don’t know, for the things you don’t do, and for your past. Accept what you can’t change, learn from your mistakes, and remind yourself that you’re only human.
Achieving self-forgiveness can be difficult, but seeking professional help can be a great way to practice self-forgiveness with support and on a deeper level.
Be Unapologetically Yourself
You can show up for yourself by being yourself. At the end of the day, you need to make sure you are living life how you want to live it. Dress how you want to dress, love who you want to love, do what you want to do, make decisions that will make you happy, and create the life that you want and not what you think others expect. It's not about anyone else, so do not allow anyone to dictate your self-worth, dreams, or happiness. There is something beautifully freeing about showing up as yourself and living a life that makes you happy.