Every person is unique. Some are more outgoing and enjoy being with others, while few love spending some ‘alone time’. Shouldn’t one do what gives them happiness? Besides, how important is ‘me time’, and don’t you feel there must be some time every day where people should spend just with their own SELF.
Why though? You might ask.
Well, don’t you think we are losing contact with ourselves, in our hectic daily schedule with all the chaos in our environment? I came across a post where a highly respected friend of mine asked readers if they knew what their favourite hobby was. It took me a few moments to think about what my favourite hobby was (something which people actually enjoy doing). I also assumed it must have been a similar situation for everyone. This implies that we are not consciously aware of activities we enjoy doing, and likewise of so many things about ourselves as we grow old with increasing responsibilities.
So, how do we really enjoy our own company, and why is it imperative? Why is it weird to love our real self? But, this will encourage us to:
Establish more robust ties with our authentic self,
Know more about who we really are,
Understand the purpose of our life
Learn to enjoy our own company,
Offer our-self more love to flourish.
Spend some ‘Alone-time’
Knowing ourselves involves spending some ‘me-time’, which is something many people usually avoid because of time constraints or are just scared of. Often, we are so concerned with our family, friends and responsibilities that we don’t get a lot of time alone. As a result, most of us feel awkward when we tend to be alone because most don’t quite understand ‘who they are alone with’.
When we take some time to get to know about ourselves, it is possible to gain a real understanding of who we really are, and we can then learn to love who we are. But when we are always surrounded by others, it can be challenging to be mindful in our activities and find that calm. This also helps us realize what might be going on in our heads, when we are on our own because often we focus on the exteriors of our lives.
Love Yourself
Enjoying your own company is an integral part of self-love. Sometimes, when we feel uncomfortable in being by ourselves, it’s a possible sign that we need to spend some time understanding ourselves and learn to be more compassionateLoving yourselves also implies focusing less on negative thoughts and not pointing out your flaws. The ones where you think of all the dreadful things which you may have told yourself/ others or done in the past pushes us further away from the true self.
When we are kind to ourselves and feed our minds with optimistic and uplifting thoughts, we begin to appreciate all our beautiful qualities. Our Me- time then becomes a pleasant experience because, at that point, we have learned to love who we are alone with.
Affirm Yourself
Using affirmations every single day to motivate yourself in your personal self-love journey. Affirmations will help to heal most of your insecurities and create a habit of self-talk. Then you will love thoughts about yourself, rather than putting your own self down. This will literally make a significant impact on your inner self which later reflects in your outer life.
Daily affirmations may include, “I am my own superhero, I can do this, I refuse to give up, I will achieve my dreams, I am blessed and grateful to have a wonderful support group, I create my happiness by appreciating the little things in my life, etc.”
Apart from these, there are several ways to create moments to just simply enjoy yourself. Travel and explore, do your favourite activity, meditate, exercise regularly, play, practice digital detox, take a long walk, take a deep breath, listen to your favourite music, watch a movie, or just laugh out loud for some/no reason.
So find your thing and spend some time on it, live in the moment and do anything that just refreshes you and makes you happy.