When you learn how to nurture yourself, you set yourself up for a healthy, happy, and upbeat lifestyle. Here are the most effective ways to nurture yourself mentally and emotionally.
Do you have days when you get up feeling completely battered and broken? Days when the weight of everything around you threatens to overwhelm you, and you feel like it’s difficult to breathe? Days when that constant inner critic becomes all too powerful and destroys your will and motivation to get anything done?
If yes, you are far from being alone.
In the hustle and bustle of our daily lives, we often forget to take care of ourselves. We don’t eat well, adopt unhealthy sleeping habits, push our emotional and physical well-being on the back burner, and constantly forget to tune in with ourselves.
Simply put, we forget how to nurture ourselves mentally and emotionally. We fail to understand what we truly want and need. We undermine our self-worth by engaging in persistent negative self-talk. We forget to invest in the most important relationship of our life (the one we have with ourselves), especially if things aren’t going our way.
It isn’t until life smacks you right at rock bottom and you feel this emptiness inside you that you understand the importance of learning how to nurture yourself.
So, learning different ways to nurture yourself is important. It’s not selfish. It’s, in fact, important for your overall well-being and growth.
In this blog post, we will dive deeper into what nurturing activities actually mean and why they’re important. We will also look at the most effective ways to nurture yourself.
What Does Nurturing Yourself Actually Mean?
Before helping you decipher answers to questions like, “How to nurture myself,” it’s essential to understand what nurturing truly means.
Nurturing yourself means indulging in small acts of kindness, compassion, and empathy directed toward yourself. It means taking up opportunities to care for and love yourself.
Nurturing activities include everything that helps you unwind after a hard day and brings you back home to yourself. It means creating a safe space for your emotions, especially the ones that are difficult to deal with.
When you learn how to nurture yourself, you intentionally make time to take care of your physical, mental, and emotional well-being.
And mind you, nurturing activities don’t usually mean spending a lot of time in the spa or spending a lot of money on shopping. Suppose that works for you, great. But nurturing activities can also be as simple as reconnecting with old friends, taking up new hobbies, or adjusting your routine to give yourself the much-needed breathing space.
Learning how to nurture yourself emotionally means prioritizing your well-being over everything else. It means catering to your needs and balancing self-care while considering your personal and professional commitments.
So, How Do You Nurture Yourself?
Now that you have an idea about what it means to nurture yourself, let’s get to the how of the question. How do you nurture yourself?
We have compiled a list of practical ways to nurture yourself that’ll help you get started right away. Let’s dive in!
1. Accept that you are enough.
One of the first tips on how to nurture yourself emotionally is to accept that you are truly enough.
Most of us look for validation on the outside. We are so used to being us that we find nothing good or unique about ourselves. We put on a biased perspective and refuse to acknowledge the good parts.
But here’s the thing, pal – you are brave and beautiful. You are kind and compassionate. And the most important part is that what you bring to the table is unique and cannot be found anywhere else.
So, wherever you are reading this, we want you to fully and wholeheartedly believe you are enough for the world and yourself.
2. Practice forgiveness (with yourself and others).
If you are looking to learn how to nurture self-love, it’s vital that you practice forgiveness with yourself and others.
When you forgive people, you don’t do them a favor. You forgive people because you want to let go of the hurt that causes you pain. You forgive people because you want to move forward without being attached to the past.
Similarly, forgiving yourself is crucial because being stuck in the past and tangled in the toxic web of regrets and guilt will not help you. While learning from your past mistakes is great, staying stuck on them would constantly make you question yourself.
Therefore, if you want to make actual progress in life, forgiveness is one of the most nurturing activities for you.
3. Become your own advocate.
In different phases of life, you will meet people who will disrespect you and try to make you feel bad about yourself. And during these times, being your own advocate is one of the best ways to nurture yourself.
So, if someone is disrespectful to you, it’s crucial to stand up. Don’t let anyone cross the boundaries of mutual respect and dignity with you. Protect yourself just like a nurturing parent would protect their child.
4. Avoid the toxic-positivity bandwagon.
We live in the social media world where the constant pressure to look happy and put on a facade is more common than ever. But it’s important that you never give into this societal pressure of being happy all the time.
One of the best tips on how to nurture yourself emotionally is to accept that you are a human. You feel a vast spectrum of emotions, with happiness being one part of it. And while it’s important to accept your happiness and revel in it, it’s equally necessary to accept the uncomfortable emotions.
So, instead of ignoring your emotions, accepting and acknowledging them are great self-care activities. Regulating and facing your uncomfortable emotions is the key to nurturing your soul.
5. Find your ‘no.’
We have heard it countless times – learn to create healthy boundaries and not overwhelm yourself with undue commitments. And while this tip on how to nurture yourself emotionally might sound like a broken record, it’s imperative that you stop trying to be all things to all people.
Staying chronically overwhelmed by juggling multiple commitments is not healthy and will only hurt your well-being in the long run. Therefore, learning to say no is one of the best ways to nurture yourself.
6. Stop comparing yourself to others.
Right from our childhood days, we are pressured and guided to become more competitive in life. Your happiness, success, and pain must be quantified with the people around you. When you grow up in such an environment, comparing yourself with others becomes so internalized that it’s almost like second nature.
But if you want to learn how to nurture yourself and improve your well-being, shedding this competitive mindset is critical. There’s genuinely no point in comparing yourself with others because what matters is you.
Therefore, focus on your journey and growth. This mindset shift is actually one of the most integral self-nurturing activities ever.
7. Talk to yourself with love.
The way you talk to yourself matters. Words have more power than you can imagine. Just think about what all your inner self-critic constantly tells you. Would you ever repeat such things to friends or loved ones?
No, right?
And that’s why you should never say it yourself as well. It’s important to restructure the negative self-talk into something more positive. You can begin by acknowledging when this inner critic starts talking and then avoiding right at the moment it starts.
8. Spend time with people who love you for who you are.
We constantly live in a world trying to put us down. When you are in this environment for too long, you somehow learn to internalize their version of who you are.
This is why spending time with people who love and support you for who you indeed are is one of the best ways to nurture yourself. It makes you feel loved and gives you a much-needed positive perspective in life.
9. Do things that make your heart feel happy.
In the middle of our stressful lives, we often forget to make time for things we love. The hustle-culture-loving mentality forces us to look down upon anything we do without keeping our professional goals in mind.
But it’s as far from the truth as possible. There’s much more to life than work or social obligations. You can make time for yourself and indulge in things that make you happy. So, if you want to learn how to nurture yourself mentally, just take up that hobby you loved as a child. Paint, write, journal, garden – do what makes you happy. And do it only for yourself.
Conclusion:
We all forget how to nurture ourselves from time to time, especially when things go haywire. Only when things get worse, do we understand the crucial time and opportunity we have missed.
This is why taking care of yourself and indulging in healthy nurturing activities is essential. We hope this blog post will help you get started right away.
If you are still on the fence about the importance of self-care, here’s a list of life-changing benefits to help you believe otherwise.
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