Are you missing out on the good stuff in life because you are trapped in a cycle of hating yourself instead of practicing self-love? How many years, experiences, and opportunities are you willing to give up because you are focusing on the limitations of your chronic conditions instead of letting self-love help you reclaim your life?
Could it be possible you hate your condition and the limitations it brings to your life so much that it is preventing you from living a meaning-filled life? Or perhaps you are like me, where you went from hating your condition to it becoming a form of self-hatred. When you suffer from self-hatred, you’ll constantly put yourself down and feel like you aren’t good at anything or worthy of anything and deserve all the bad things, such as your condition.
What if I told you that practicing self-love would free you from how you feel about yourself and your condition? Self love is the cure to self hate. It sounds too good to be true. But the truth is when you practice self-love, you are setting boundaries about how you will treat yourself and allow others to treat you. And those boundaries open up a whole other world.
What is Self-Hatred?
Self-hatred is like having a little bully inside your head. It’s the voice of constant criticism, pointing out flaws and mistakes. The words you hear with this bully include:
- You’re a loser, unable to tough it out
- You deserve this condition
- Why did you bother trying? You know you are going to fail
- You aren’t good enough
- You aren’t worthy of love; you are such a burden to everyone
Living with a chronic condition means limitations or adapting to new ways to achieve what you want. Chronic illness means self-doubt or guilt becomes stronger. Remember, you aren’t responsible for your condition.
How Can Self-Hatred Impact your Life?
Did you know that when you start embracing your imperfections, you start to see them in a positive light? Not only is this a side-effect of embracing them, but the truth is, there are positive aspects to our imperfections.
For some people, the self-hatred becomes so strong that they develop destructive behaviors such as cutting, eating disorders or using substances. It can affect every aspect of your life, including your relationships, career, and more. You may find yourself no longer caring about things you once did. You might even avoid doing the things that used to make you happy.
The question is, how can we eliminate self-hatred from our lives?
3 Ways to Use Self Love to Overcome Self-Hate
One of the first ways you can let self-love help you overcome self-hate is to switch around the type of talk you use. When you love yourself, you speak and think loving words.
When you speak loving words, they are with kindness and focus on the positive. For example, on those days when you can’t do much, instead of calling yourself worthless, you may say something like resting is important to healing yourself. You will tell yourself that you are doing your best, etc.
Another way self-love can help you overcome everything is to take the time to journal the things you are good at. You can list your strengths, reach out and ask others to help you with this, or even use our prompt-driven Self-Love journal. These exercises help you see yourself from a perspective instead of focusing on your perceived weaknesses.
Self love brings about self-compassion. Self-compassion allows you to treat yourself like a loved one or good friend. You wouldn’t hold limitations or illnesses against them being unable to do things. Instead, you’d allow yourself the grace to live with chronic illness.
Chronic illness doesn’t make us less as people; it also doesn’t mean we are worthless. Letting self-love be a part of managing your condition will help you overcome those hard feelings.
Taking the Next Step
I know from experience that living with chronic conditions is hard. I also know that most chronic illnesses can darken how we see ourselves. So if you need help embracing learning self-love to regain control of your life, let’s connect and get you back to living life beyond chronic illness. Supportegy Wellness provides chronic illness support through various proven ways, including chronic illness support groups.