There are so many ways to practice self-love. Here are a few:
Introspect and reflect:
Take a pen and notepad. Write down the time when you thought that everything would fall apart. But then you handled the situation very well. Write down every achievement, even if you think it is too small to write. For instance, write down when you thought you would fail an exam, but you passed it. Or write down a time when you thought that you wouldn't be able to handle a project (either of school or your office), but you completed it.
Write at least 10 things. I am sure you have achieved a lot. The only thing you need to do is to sit down silently and remember it. No matter how small or big you think, it is. It is like showing gratitude towards your strength, power, intelligence, presence of mind, capability, bravery, and daring.
Showing gratitude towards yourself is as important as showing gratitude towards your life and its blessings.
Now, write down the 3 habits that you own, and you praise them. It could be as wacky as cracking jokes at a serious moment to make the environment light. Or it could be finding new ways to irritate your friends or siblings. But, write it down. You will feel proud.
Write down the 3 qualities you have and others appreciate it. It could be the habit of appreciating people, spreading positive vibes, or helping your near ones in a tough time or being straightforward. Contemplate on it, you will found some qualities that make you proud.
Now, write down 3 skills you own. Even if you have just started to learn it. It could be the simplest or the toughest skill. It could include organizing, cleaning, balancing work-life, or cooking, etc.
Envision your future personality
You have to write 5 qualities and 5 habits, and 5 skills you want to ACHIEVE. See, this is more important than the previous one. You may or may not own some fascinating qualities, but, I assure you, you secretly want to build a few ones. So, why not write them down and start working on them. Envision the personality you want. Think about how your perfect personality will look. And then write everything about it includes these 3 things. After writing them down, start following them. Don't just jump into all these things. Take baby steps and work on 1 quality, skill, or habit. You don't have to develop all the 15 things now. Take your time. Just make sure that you keep going. Even if you fall for a moment, get up and start again from there. I assure you that you will feel like giving up in the mid-way, and it is the ultimate proof that you are trying hard and growing up. So, take breaks but don't give up.
On a serious note, take things lightly
I have a reason to say this. Once you start taking things lightly, you will understand that not all things deserve your attention. For instance, small fights with loved ones. It is for sure that you will fight with a loved one's cause where there is love, there is fight. And thinking about a small fight all day long doesn't worth it, but thinking about how to mend it, works better.
Also, start laughing at yourself. Please read further before judging this point. Imagine you are working in your office, a colleague of yours come and says something, you reply to them with something stupid. What will happen? All the people around you will start laughing at you. Now, instead of feeling embracement, you can start laughing at yourself. By this, your respect won't come down, but you will be known for your friendly nature. Because in any way, you can't stop them from laughing, so it's better to laugh with them, making them feel that you are one of them, a HUMAN, who can make mistakes and laughs at themselves.
Additionally, suppose they are laughing at you to make you feel inferior. In that case, people will stop it after realizing that this doesn't affect you. And if people are genuinely laughing at the situation, they will find you friendly with whom they share a good connection.
This also means that you have to set a boundary, know when you have to laugh and ignore, and when you have to ignore them, totally. Above both are just a couple of examples of this. But, in reality, people take small things seriously. Prepare yourself for small mistakes of yours and others. This is a way of mental health care that eventually leads to self-love.
Completing the taken task
This is with every one of us. Remember the time you watch or read motivational content. How do you react/respond? You get up with full energy and start multiple tasks, TOGETHER. And you end up completing NONE. So, fill up your energy tank, and ponder before taking up any responsibility, task, habit, etc. Decide your priority and choose a minimum 1 or maximum of 2 things apart from your daily work. Believe me, completing your 1 task will give you more satisfaction and pride than taking up 3-4 tasks completing neither. Again, take baby steps and complete your task of the day. Keep track of it. It is completely okay to miss it 3 times a month. Or 1 time in a week. Still, you will end up with a lot of completed tasks. Remember when last year you thought to learn a new language, but failed hard. Now is the right time to take up that task and complete it in a few months.
Learning new things:
Don't we get bored eating the same food daily? The same goes for our minds. Consuming the same type of content, doing the same routine work, wearing the same type of cloth daily makes our lives tedious. So, adding a little spice is a must. And believe me, your real spice is your new learning. It could be anything, from learning a new game to learning how to develop a new habit. Anything that you learn will add amazing energy. Trust me, this is the most simple yet effective way to build yourself and your confidence. You will have something to looking forward to in your life.
Consume interesting content:
I know this sounds weird, but it is not! Recently, while I was listening to some mysterious anecdote, I was thrilled and got completely engaged. For a while, I forgot my troubles and problems and started thinking about how different our problems were. Having the same meal is difficult, and finding the same amount of meals daily is difficult. Now, we can understand that we are so stuck with the problems that we tend to overlook others' problems and their stories. It doesn't matter if the story is real or not. The only thing that matters that how much it kept you engaged long enough to stop worrying about everything else. This is a weird but handy way to refresh your mind. The medium doesn't matter. You can read, hear or watch. But, consume something interesting. And this doesn't mean to indulge in gossip. But, to know about some interesting facts and stories that are quite inspiring and teaching life's lessons. Just take care that it just enthrals you while consuming the content and not after finishing it. Otherwise, you will be thinking of it for the entire time while forgetting your actual work. Our intention is just to forget the problem for a while and not entirely.
I know one question bothers you. That how will this help you in self-love? There are two ways of loving yourself: you go to a spa (it is pampering yourself) and give yourself a treat or treat yourself as a deserving person. The ways I am mentioning here is a way to create belief in own self. Once you start believing yourself, you will automatically start understanding yourself, which will lead you to become confident. Once you are confident with yourself, you will start appreciating yourself and eventually lands on loving yourself. Because your base is strong, the other things will build up with less effort. Self-love is more about healing and building up yourself. This is a different way of self-love. But, I assure you that you will love the journey. You don't have to be perfect. You just have to keep going with a bright smile on your face.
The ways mentioned above are different; you have to find which better works for you. Also, I would encourage you to read different articles on self-love. Every writer has a peculiar way to depict self-love. Maybe, you will find something that aligns with your idea of self-love.
Comment down your way of self-love.