The Science Of Self-Love & How It Heals You

One of my favorite things to talk about,

Self-love.

And it's absolutely one of the most favorite things I love to teach my clients and certainly to feel.

I love that there is so much science to explain how self-love is so important,

So effective and what happens in the brain when we initiate self-care and self-love practices and also most important,

How self-love is healing.

The science of self-love is only part of the equation.

When you learn how to practice self-love,

To live with self-love,

You feel its effects upon you as a vibrant expression of self-nurturing,

Of inner wisdom and self-acclimation.

It is a feeling of being complete as you are,

Even as you are often striving and seeking to live and be the elevated,

Better,

Kinder,

More loving and affirming you.

Self-love is rooted in neuroscience.

It is a neurobiological process that literally reshapes your brain for greater happiness,

Resilience,

Self-acceptance and autonomy.

What self-love does is activate your brain's reward centers,

Particularly the ventral tegmental area and the nucleus accumbens,

Releasing dopamine,

The feel-good neurotransmitter,

Which is instrumental for motivation and for feeling happiness and joy.

When you practice nurturing,

Loving self-care in kind self-narrative and healthy habits,

You feel the altruistic and affirmative effects of this positive feedback loop,

Making self-compassion and self-kindness a way of being.

The knowledge of how you can instructively give love to yourself is instrumental for feeling self-worth,

Autonomy and whole.

Self-love practices strengthen the prefrontal cortex,

Giving you better self-control and awareness.

This is because the prefrontal cortex helps you process and regulate emotions calmly,

Rather than reacting impulsively.

Self-love calms the amygdalas fight,

Flight or freeze response,

Creating a sense of safety,

Eliminating fear,

Anxiety and negative self-talk,

Thereby creating positive self-regulation and emotional balance.

Your practices of self-kindness,

Meditation and healthy habits as self-love promotes the release of oxytocin and serotonin,

Promoting bonding and positive mood and self-image.

Repeated self-love practices create new neural networks,

Making self-compassion more automatic and reducing ingrained negative patterns,

Essentially rewiring your brain for more resilience and self-acceptance.

Those who practice intentional self-love are more confident and this projection of healthy affect through practices of self-acceptance and self-compassion continues to build self-worth and reduces reliance on external validation,

Making you more secure,

Capable and empowered to pursue your goals and uphold healthy boundaries.

Self-love is this lightning beam,

For others notice your positive energy,

Your vitality and natural confidence and they want to be around you.

Self-love makes you a better you by creating a new normal for your feelings of wellbeing and positivity.

So what is this beautiful thing called self-love?

We need to begin here.

Self-love is valuing,

Caring for and respecting yourself.

Self-love is treating yourself with compassion and kindness as a foundation of self-nurturing,

Self-care and self-autonomy.

It is acceptance coupled with the inner honesty of seeing yourself as you are.

It is in this accuracy that you are then able to examine the aspects of yourself that hold room for improvement,

Growth and healing.

As you actively take the steps in alignment with your higher aspirations,

Because you feel the worth and value in living as your best self in all moments.

When we cultivate and practice self-love,

We experience a powerful shift in our mindset.

This allows us to navigate life's challenges with grace and strength,

Whilst maintaining a focus on our wellbeing and how we can thrive.

Imagine a life where your inner dialogue is encouraging rather than critical,

Where you embrace all of you and you are simultaneously motivated to improve and seek more because you know that you deserve to be all that you can.

Imagine a life where you feel empowered to take the right risks,

Set and uphold healthy boundaries easily and pursue what truly inspires you.

This is the essence of self-love.

It is a formula for living unencumbered by the dogma and the biases of social mores.

It is never selfish,

It is love and it is your love,

Which makes it incredibly necessary and also sacred.

When we practice self-love,

We heal our body,

We increase our confidence and self-esteem,

We are more open to experiences,

We become more compassionate and connected with others and we live as the depth of our soul wisdom,

Because when you love yourself,

You radiate this love into the world,

Uplifting others in the process and feeling the powerful feedback loop of your goodness and your true power as love.

I've been teaching self-love for decades now and what I see in my work with clients is the tools of empowered freedom,

Freedom to be their self,

To express their true essence and to follow a path inspired out of their impassioned creativity and love of life.

The practice of self-love is just that,

It is a daily intentional mindset shift and the behaviors that become habits and new ways of living and being that continue to support and elevate your mood,

Your confidence and your life.

Let me share the many benefits of self-love and why you need to learn this.

There's four key areas I wanna share,

There are countless others,

Here are the four that I feel are most prevalent to our conversation and to why self-love is so important.

The first benefit of self-love is self-efficacy.

Self-love boosts self-efficacy,

Which is our belief in our ability to succeed,

It is your confidence in handling challenges and succeeding at tasks and goals.

Self-efficacy influences motivation,

Effort,

Persistence and resilience in areas like academics,

Work and health.

When you trust in yourself,

You are more confident in taking on new challenges,

This trust fuels your desire to achieve goals and live your best life,

In turn,

This belief in yourself empowers you to continually push boundaries and grow.

Second,

Setting healthy boundaries is an incredible benefit of self-love.

Healthy boundaries is an act of self-respect and of course,

Self-love,

Because when you say no when necessary out of honoring your needs and doing what is right for you,

You create space for all of the choices and actions that are aligned with what is most important.

Prioritizing yourself is a vital practice of self-love,

When you do so,

You radiate love into the world because you are happier,

You are giving to yourself in a way that no one else can for you and it becomes easy to uplift others when you make the space and the time and the love to give yourself first.

Another benefit of self-love is compassion.

Self-compassion,

A core component of self-love helps you accept yourself,

Your strengths,

As well as the areas you don't excel in.

When you hold compassion in moments when you falter,

You don't linger in self-disappointment and self-loathing.

Living with compassion for yourself makes it easier to extend the same understanding to others.

This ability to empathize strengthens connections and it nurtures your relationships with others.

Practicing self-compassion activates your brain's mirror neurons.

Mirror neurons are a type of brain cell that are activated both when performing an action and when observing another individual perform that same action,

A process believed to help an individual recognize or understand the behavior of another.

When your brain's mirror neurons are activated,

It helps you to feel more connected and loving toward others.

The more you cultivate empathy,

Which is the ability to understand,

Share,

And vicariously experience another person's feelings,

Thoughts,

And situation by putting yourself in their shoes,

The more effective you are in fostering connection,

Trust,

And better communication.

And finally,

Self-love reduces stress and supports greater resilience.

Stress often arises when we feel incapable of meeting challenges.

It's also a main contributing factor to illness and disease.

With a strong sense of self-love,

You are better equipped to overcome obstacles and to view challenges as momentary pivots and to see them as opportunities for growth and learning.

This mindset fosters resilience.

With self-love,

You are more inclined to use self-encouragement and optimism and to be proactive,

Never giving up on what matters most.

Research shows that self-compassion reduces psychological distress and improves overall well-being.

Loving yourself means that when challenges arise,

You trust yourself to handle them.

Stress feels more manageable because you know your worth is not tied to external success or failure.

The journey of self-love is one of returning home to yourself for caring for your needs,

For complete self-acceptance and unconditional love.

As you are in every moment,

It is a practice of rewiring your brain,

Quieting the noise of self-doubt and leaning into the abundant love that already exists within you.

Loving yourself is not about becoming perfect in whatever way you define perfect to be.

It is about embracing yourself fully and knowing you are enough.

As you cultivate self-love,

You begin to witness this as a superpower,

Connecting with yourself,

Being in control of your happiness and using your free will more readily in living inspired.

In turn,

You judge yourself less and you judge others less.

You move through the world with more compassion,

More presence and more trust in yourself.

And this love ripples outward,

Deepening your connections with others and allowing you to experience life more freely and completely,

Feeling confident to live with your heart open.

The more you love yourself,

The more powerful you feel,

The more you live your life to the fullest and the more you realize we are all connected.

You are love and love is the energy and the way in which we are all connected.

We are all one.

I wanna remind you self-love is the practice,

It's ongoing,

Gentle,

Habitual,

Caring,

Encouragement is what fuels you to continue this because by cultivating self-love,

You give yourself the greatest gift of all,

The freedom to live fully,

Love deeply and step into your power.

As you do this,

You illuminate the path for others to follow.

If you would like my help on this ever so present journey of self-love,

Please reach out to me,

Let me help you.

Thank you so very much for listening.

This is Dorothy Sonori Juno,

Namaste.