I hope you are all having a blessed year so far! As we celebrate Valentine’s Day, many focus on the LOVE they have in their life. That might look like romantic love, the love between you and your gal pals, or the love you share with your kids, parents, or siblings. For many of us, February was also a great time to be reminded of the love we have for ourselves.

If you ask 100 people for a definition of self-love, you will likely get 100 different answers. And every single one of them is right! It doesn’t really matter HOW you practice self-love – as long as you practice it on a regular basis. For many of our clients, the act of practicing self-love can be challenging. If you’ve been chronically sick for a while, it can be hard to find the energy and motivation to do something for yourself outside of just making it through the day. Not to mention being stuck in the mindset of being sick – which can make it hard to find joy in small acts of self-love.

If this resonates with you, I invite you to focus this year on really honing in on what self-love means to you – and come up with an action plan on how you plan to make self-love a regular part of your routine. Here are a few of my personal favorite acts of self-love, and how I implement them.

• Morning mantras –- before I get out of bed in the morning, I spend 10 minutes or so meditating. I like to run through a series of affirming “I AM” statements.
  

  
  “I AM beautiful, I AM strong, I AM loved, I AM abundance…”

• Cooking Healthy Meals –– cooking high-quality, healthy food for ourselves is one of the greatest gifts of self-love you can give to yourself. If you have a hard time creating a routine around daily cooking, try meal prepping, crock pot meals, and even setting aside one afternoon on the weekend to do all your prep and set yourself up for success.
  
  
• Daily Movement – after spending many years on my own healing, I find myself being driven and dedicated to daily gym sessions – but that wasn’t always the case. Even just 15 or 20 minutes of stretching on your living room floor or a leisurely walk with your dog around the neighborhood counts as movement! My goal is to MOVE every day – once this becomes a habit for you, you truly appreciate the self-love involved in that daily decision.

If those don’t resonate with you, here are some other really great ideas and options for starting a self-love routine:

• Write yourself a love letter each week
• Buy yourself a bouquet of flowers on a regular basis
• Take a long relaxing bubble bath regularly
• Unplug for 24 hours from tech and social media at least once per week
• Meditate daily before you start your day
• Create a Vision Board for yourself on paper or on a digital version

However you choose to practice self-love is up to you!

What matters is that you commit to yourself and be consistent.