Let's Talk Midlife
Let's Talk Midlife
08: Self-Love Secrets That Will Shift Your Mindset!
Self-love is a lifelong journey, not a destination. It's about learning to recognize and appreciate your worth, and to forgive yourself for your shortcomings.
If you have a hard time forgiving yourself, you’ll find it hard to forgive others.
Love yourself and maximize your potential!
You are, enough, just as you are!
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Midlifers, welcome to Let's Talk Midlife. I'm the Midlife Maven, your host, Natasha Hardy of Hardy Life, because you deserve a hearty life. This podcast is for midlife women who want to learn tips, tools, and strategies to get through their second season of life. Have you ever struggled with poor self-care, lack of confidence, having no plan, and fear of aging? Well, you're in the right place. Press play and let's dive into today's episode. Happy Midlife to you. Happy Midlife. Welcome back to Let's Talk Midlife. Today I want to talk to you about self-love and why it's very important that we all lovingly take care of ourselves. You see, we can't form loving relationships with others until we love ourselves, meaning have self-love. Not only is self-love a fundamental part of well-being, it's essential to developing a strong sense of self-worth and inner peace. Self-love means understanding and accepting yourself. It involves expressing kindness and respect towards yourself. It means recognizing your strengths, coming to terms with your weaknesses, and striving to be the best version of you. Yes, the essence of self-love is understanding that you are worthy of love and respect. It's freeing when you love yourself. You realize you are not defined by your missteps or failures. Take some time to honor and be kind to yourself. Practice self-love every day. I'm going to peel back a few layers of self-love and lay its foundations. Trust, respect, communication, and support. Trust is essential for any relationship to foster and grow. Respect is the key to understanding and accepting ourselves and others. Communication is a vital part of any relationship. It allows both partners to express their thoughts, feelings, and needs open and honesty. Support ensures that each person feels appreciated and valued. Without these four pillars of self-love, relationships cannot survive. Love is a strong emotion involving admiration and affection for yourself, another person, or a thing. There are many types of love and each has its own unique characteristic. All are essential to our overall wellbeing. Platonic love is a strong bond between two people who are not romantically involved. Unconditional love is not dependent on any particular action or circumstance. We love whether or not someone is worthy based on their actions, which is awesome. Self-love is the practice of caring for and valuing yourself in a healthy and loving way. Romantic love is is the feeling of being in love with someone. It requires two people to be willing to put the effort to foster a relationship through honesty and respect. Familiar love is shared amongst family members, of course. With all that love, having a sense of humor and being able to laugh together or at yourself can go a long way in strengthening any relationship. Self-love is important in midlife. According to a survey conducted by the American Psychological Association in 2019, 81% of women over the age of 49 felt that self-love was essential to their overall well-being. Furthermore, a University of Michigan study found that self-love was related to greater life satisfaction, higher self-esteem, and better physical health in women over 50. Yay! We reflect self-love by devoting quality attention to self-care mentally, emotionally, and physically. Taking care of yourself involves cultivating healthy habits, practices, and behaviors, including eating a balanced diet, getting enough sleep, exercising regularly, and taking time for yourself to do the things that make you feel good. Other self-love practices of self-care are talking kindly to you about yourself. Setting boundaries, expressing your feelings in a healthy way. Knowing your worth, having the courage to stand up for yourself and your beliefs. With a strong foundation of self-love, it's easy to feel confident and secure. Security plays a vital role when vetting people as friends and romantic relationships. And I love that because it does require vetting. And vetting requires what? Time and patience. So you can see if people really do fit into your lifestyles. To love, you must be emotionally available and have these important attributes. Vulnerability, patience, empathy, understanding, kindness, acceptance, and open-mindedness. With vulnerability, you can build meaningful relationships based on trust and experience joy. Being vulnerable requires risk-taking. And the rewards of vulnerability includes understanding, connection, and intimacy. Yes, indeed. Vulnerability does not mean weakness. It is actually a strong quality to have. Vulnerability can have a downside, which involves your exposure to potential harm or risk. Being emotionally open can expose you to possible hurt, disappointment, and criticism. It's only possible to be vulnerable when you feel safe enough to trust that you won't be harmed. Emotional availability is a skill that takes time and effort to develop. Oftentimes, we are not taught this from childhood or through our home lives. And we have to grow up and learn how to develop the skill of emotional availability. It can be rewarding and fulfilling. This important aspect of intimate relationships involves being emotionally present and responsive to the feeling of others, acknowledging and validating them. The foundation of emotional availability is being aware of your own emotions and openness to authentically express them. And this is why emotional availability is a skill. In our days, we're so anesthetized and desensitized to the world around us that we do not allow ourselves to feel our feelings. And it requires practice and feeling your own personal feelings to be able to then develop emotional availability. Emotional availability makes it possible to recognize, manage, and share your emotions in a genuine and meaningful way. When emotional availability is paired with emotional safety, It's the key to being in the flow of your life and builds healthy relationships. With emotional safety comes self-awareness, relationship stability, and compassion for yourself and others. When you feel secure and supported, you can express your thoughts, feelings, and opinions without fear of being hurt or judged. Each party feels respected and valued. You can foster an environment of emotional safety by using the skill of active listening, which is to listen without judgment or criticism. Listening validates the feelings of others. Showing empathy and compassion can go a long way to creating safe and secure spaces. To wrap up, self-love is a lifelong journey. not a destination. It's about learning to recognize and appreciate your worth and to forgive yourself for your shortcomings. If you have a hard time forgiving yourself, you'll find it hard to forgive others. With self-love, you can respect and honor yourself, your choices, and recognize your beauty both inside and out. Self-love is the key to unlocking your inner potential and manifesting the life you desire. So love yourself and maximize your potential. You are enough just as you are. That's it for this week's episode. If you have any questions related to today's topic or any of the previous topics, feel free to email me at info at natashahardy.com Until next time. Thank you for listening in today. You could have been anywhere and you chose to be here. And for that, I truly thank you. Remember to like, subscribe, and leave a review at the end of this podcast. Follow me on Instagram and TikTok at Hardy Life. That's H-A-R-D-E-E Life. Also, you can catch me on LinkedIn under my name, Natasha Hardy. Remember, if nobody's told you that they love you today, let me be the first to say I love you and there ain't nothing you can do about it. Go be amazing because you are because you are.