A picture with the caption “Self-love is…” pops up on your social media. You sweep it away, thinking, “I can’t love myself. I made so many mistakes.”
Do you struggle to love yourself as much as the experts say you should? Then this post is for you.
You have always criticized yourself. You never reminded yourself that making mistakes and having regrets are a part of being human.
And you never gave yourself long, warm hugs.
If your harsh self-judgments are stopping you from loving yourself, it’s time to move on.
Loving yourself doesn’t have to be difficult. You can love yourself despite your past because it does not define who you are today.
Self-love starts with the belief that you are not your mistakes.
[• This post has a companion post: Self-Esteem Quotes For Women.]
50 Self-Love Quotes For Girls And Women (And Others Too!)
The first rule of self-love is that you must never put yourself last in line when it comes to meeting your needs versus serving the needs of others.
Keep in mind this self-love message from Janis Joplin, the first lady of rock ‘n’ roll:
Don’t compromise yourself. You’re all you’ve got.
Janis Joplin
Girls and women (and everyone else!), it’s time to fall in love with yourself again.
You’re already precious and worth far more than a million dollars. Now add more firepower to your indomitable spirit.
Here are the 50 self-love quotes:
⁕ Love yourself first and everything else falls into line. You really have to love yourself to get anything done in this world. — Lucille Ball
⁕ Self-love seems so often unrequited. — Anthony Powell
⁕ To fall in love with yourself is the first secret to happiness. — Robert Morely
⁕ To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance. — Oscar Wilde
⁕ Know who you are. Know what you want. Know what you deserve. And don’t settle for less. — Tony Gaskins
⁕ Love yourself enough to set boundaries. Your time and energy are precious. You get to choose how you use it. You teach people how to treat you by deciding what you will and won’t accept. — Anna Taylor
⁕ Be gentle with yourself, learn to love yourself, to forgive yourself, for only as we have the right attitude toward ourselves can we have the right attitude toward others. — Wilfred Peterson
⁕ If you aren’t good at loving yourself, you will have a difficult time loving anyone, since you’ll resent the time and energy you give another person that you aren’t even giving to yourself. — Barbara De Angelis
⁕ If you can learn to love yourself and all your flaws, you can love other people so much better. And that makes you so happy. — Kristin Chenoweth
Self-love = to love yourself as much as you’d love your best friend.
⁕ No other love, no matter how genuine it is, can fulfill one’s heart better than unconditional self-love. — Edmond Mbiaka
⁕ In order to love who you are, you cannot hate the experience that shaped you. — Andrea Dykstra
⁕ Self-love is rising above the perfectionist standards you have set for yourself. It is accepting that you are human and make mistakes just like any other person. So start being real, and stop being perfect. — H.I.P.
⁕ Inner peace begins the moment you choose not to allow another person or event to control your emotions. — Pema Chodron
⁕ Self-love is respecting and practicing your right to be happy. It’s also giving yourself a smile and a hand each time you fall down. — H.I.P.
⁕ I am who I am. Not who you think I am. Not who you want me to be. I am me. — Brigitte Nicole
⁕ Love is the great miracle cure. Loving ourselves works miracles in our lives. — Louise L. Hay
⁕ There are plenty of places in which you will face rejection; the mirror… should not be one of them. — N.R. Shephard
⁕ Loving yourself means you have accepted yourself and your past. It means you chose to change for the better and are now in a happy relationship with yourself.
⁕ To accept ourselves as we are means to value our imperfections as much as our perfections. — Sandra Bierig
⁕ If there’s one thing I’m willing to bet on, it’s myself. — Beyonce
⁕ You have to learn to get up from the table when love is no longer being served. — Nina Simone
⁕ Embrace the glorious mess that you are. — Elizabeth Gilbert (author of the 10-million-copies bestseller Eat, Pray, Love)
⁕ If you have the ability to love, love yourself first. — Charles Bukowski
⁕ I am mine. Before I am EVER anyone else’s. — Nayyirah Waheed
⁕ Love yourself instead of abusing yourself. — Karolina Kurkova
⁕ When a woman becomes her own best friend life is easier. — Diane Von Furstenberg
⁕ Often we are reluctant to promote self-love mostly because we confuse it with selfishness. Since we are humans, we ought to have a healthy love for ourselves; it is from this fount that love flows out to others. — Mason Olds
⁕ Self-love begins when we observe our actions and words with compassion as if we were our own best friend. — Sara M Bosworth
⁕ You can search throughout the entire universe for someone who is more deserving of your love and affection than you are yourself, and that person is not to be found anywhere. You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection. — Buddha
⁕ I now see how owning our story and loving ourselves through that process is the bravest thing that we will ever do. — Brené Brown
⁕ Loving yourself makes it easier to love others. You can’t truly love another until you know how to love yourself. — H.I.P.
⁕ To love yourself right now, just as you are, is to give yourself heaven. Don’t wait until you die. If you wait, you die now. If you love, you live now. — Alan Cohen
Never starve yourself of self-love.
⁕ Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one’s definition of your life; define yourself. — Harvey Fierstein
⁕ You can’t pour from an empty cup. Take care of yourself first. — Norm Kelly
⁕ Love yourself unconditionally, just as you love those closest to you despite their faults. — Les Brown
⁕ I don’t like myself, I’m crazy about myself. — May West
⁕ Eat like you love yourself. Move like you love yourself. Speak like you love yourself. Act like your love yourself. Love yourself. — Tara Stiles
⁕ You have to believe in yourself when no one else does – that makes you a winner right here. — Venus Williams (the only tennis player to have won a medal at 4 Olympic Games).
⁕ A girl should be two things: who and what she wants. — Coco Chanel
⁕ Never dull your shine for somebody else. — Tyra Banks
⁕ Choose every day to forgive yourself. You are human, flawed, and most of all worthy of love. — Alison Malee
⁕ You carry so much love in your heart. Give some to yourself. — r.z.
⁕ Be yourself. No one can say you’re doing it wrong. — Charles M. Schulz
⁕ Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter, and those who matter don’t mind. — Bernard M. Baruch
⁕ Life … puts you in touch with people you need to meet — to help you, to hurt you, to leave you, to love you, and to gradually strengthen you into the person you were meant to become. — Robert Tew
⁕ How you love yourself is how you teach others to love you. — Rupi Kaur
⁕ About all you can do in life is be who you are. Some people will love you for you. Most will love you for what you can do for them, and some won’t like you at all. — Rita Mae Brown
⁕ Who will you love if not yourself? … You will not love anyone or anything until those eyes in the mirror soften up and embrace the beauty that is already within. — Vironika Tugaleva
⁕ So plant your own gardens and decorate your own soul, instead of waiting for someone to bring you flowers. — Jorge Luis Borges
⁕ I have so much love in my heart to give; I have to remember to save some for myself. — Ericka Leigh
More Inspiring Quotes On Loving Yourself
▪ You were born with a right to be happy. Self-love is respecting and practicing that right for your happiness and well-being.
▪ Self-love is calling yourself by name and saying, “Hey lovely lady, I love you for who you are, exactly as you are!”
▪ Loving yourself is like being a great friend to yourself. Always remember, you are that one friend who will never leave you — so why not be your own BFF (best friend forever)?
▪ To love yourself more, you need to set yourself free from any conditions. True self-love is unconditional.
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Self-love is not narcissism.
▪ If you’re searching for that one person that will change your life, take a look in the mirror.
▪ You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.
▪ You know you’re in self-love when you see your reflection, and it makes you smile. Why don’t you do that more often?
▪ To love yourself fully, you have to forgive yourself first. Once you make peace with your past, you’ll find a more lovable self in the present.
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▪ Those who love themselves know to set limits and say no to activities and relationships that drain them physically, emotionally, and spiritually.
▪ Self-love means not settling for less than you deserve. Compassion, kindness, happiness — you deserve a lot more of these for yourself than for others.
▪ When you compare yourself to others, you actually suffocate your ability to love yourself.
▪ You can’t find a chance of loving yourself if you’re always criticizing yourself. Self-criticism and self-love can’t live in the same house.
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Self-love is breaking up with a narcissist.
Something disturbing happens when a narcissistic relationship ends.
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▪ Self-love is not selfish love. You can love yourself while also loving others. It’s not a zero-sum game.
Self-love is non-zero-sum.
[Non-zero-sum is when both parties win in a transaction. When one’s gain is another’s loss, it is zero-sum.]
▪ Self-love is getting ready and looking good just for yourself, even when you know there’s no one to see you in person.
▪ Self-love is investing time and resources to educate and grow yourself. Give yourself the gift of knowledge.
▪ You don’t need to love everything about yourself to have self-love; loving yourself is first about accepting yourself completely.
▪ People who love themselves always know exactly what they want for themselves. – Anon
Why do women feel guilty about loving themselves?
Women are often hard on themselves when they fail or fall short of their own expectations.
Whereas, they should be celebrating their failures, praising their efforts, and showing themselves pure, unadulterated love.
Women in our men-dominated society often replace their self-esteem with self-doubt. Then it becomes even more difficult for them to embrace themselves for who they are, as they are.
Again, what women need in those times is some self-love.
When things go wrong, women tend to neglect or punish themselves. Instead, they should be giving themselves a loving hug.
When women love themselves, they can pursue their goals with greater passion and persistence.
By the way, self-love and narcissism are not the same things:
- Narcissism is toxic self-obsession and it tries to satisfy the narcissist at the cost of others’ peace.
- Self-love makes you happy and satisfied, while also opening the door to giving others your love.
[Find out the 10 Frequently Missed Signs of A Covert (Hidden) Narcissist.]
Self-love is not a luxury, but a necessity.
Self-love means forgiving yourself, with deep love and empathy, as you would do with the most loved people in your life.
In challenging times like these, when we are barely coming out of forced loneliness, you are first your own person before anyone else.
If you fall out of favor with yourself, then all those who depend on you will suffer along with you.
When you connect to the rest of your world through screens, it is crucial that you also connect to yourself with deep love. Then you can keep growing your resilience. Resilience is your capacity to bounce back from hard times.
FAQs
What is self-love?
Self-love or “love of self” is not narcissism, but appreciating the goodness and the humanness in yourself while being gentle in embracing your flaws and fragility. It is accepting yourself fully, treating yourself with kindness and respect, and nurturing your growth and well-being. Psychologists say self-love is a mix of self-esteem, self-acceptance, and self-compassion.
How to increase self-love?
Self-love is not always evident or present at an optimal level. To increase it, you must remind yourself of your best qualities, like how helpful, honest, capable, hardworking, and unique you are in life. Mindfulness meditation can help you love yourself more in the present moment, for what you are today, and stop judging yourself less for your past flaws.
What are the best quotes for self-love?
Here are 7 inspiring self-love quotes:
1. To fall in love with yourself is the first secret to happiness. — Robert Morely
2. Love yourself first, and everything else falls into line. You really have to love yourself to get anything done in this world. — Lucille Ball
3. I love the person I’ve become because I fought to become her. — Kaci Diane
4. I am who I am. Not who you think I am. Not who you want me to be. I am me. — Brigitte Nicole
5. You are not your mistakes. They are what you did. Not who you are. — Lisa Lieberman-Wang
6. No other love, no matter how genuine it is, can fulfill one’s heart better than unconditional self-love. — Edmond Mbiaka
7. I’m constantly amazed by how easily we love ourselves above all others, yet we put more stock in the opinions of others than in our own estimation of self. … How much credence we give to the opinions our peers have of us and how little to our very own! — Marcus Aurelius
Final Words:
With a healthy amount of self-love, you can treat yourself with the same amount of care and respect as you do with your loved ones. Self-love will help you wake up happier in the mornings and make your relationships more fulfilling.
Finally, understand that the reason to love ourselves is this:
What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
✶ This post has a companion post: Self-Esteem Quotes For Women.
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• How to relax by calming your vagus nerve?
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Author Bio: Created and written by Sandip Roy — medical doctor, psychology writer, and happiness researcher. Founder and Chief Editor of The Happiness Blog. Writes on mental well-being, happiness, positive psychology, and philosophy (especially Stoicism).
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