Learning to nurture ourselves is essential for our well-being. Over time we can forget what being nurtured feels like, and it may even become uncomfortable to accept nurturing from others as well. So we end up in a loop of discomfort, when we nurturing the most, but are unable to give it to ourselves and we reject it from others, which turns into many other emotions including anger, sadness, resentment, fear, and loneliness. Begin to speak to yourself like you would to a small child in need of care or treat yourself how you would like someone who loves you to treat you. Look for examples of nurturing that you can replicate within yourself. By practicing nurturing and self-compassion with ourselves we can move beyond those critical and negative voices in our heads, which can cause much of our fear and darkness to dissipate.

Make mental wellness a practice. Find what works for you and find a way to practice it, and you will find that your mental health becomes stronger and healthier. This nightly practice has improved my mental health and happiness greatly.

I’ve been trying to understand self-love for a long time. I read a lot of articles and books and have written the words myself that we each absolutely deserve love and belonging, but they continued to be just words to me. The feeling of heaviness and self-loathing wasn’t really going away.

I realize now that there is a difference between self-care and self-love and that self-love has to exist internally to really evolve.

To have compassion for others, we must first have compassion for ourselves and continue to notice when we are judging ourselves in elusive and hidden ways. Practicing self-compassion helps us discover and overcome our self-defeating criticism and judgement and spur desired growth.

It was a rough week. I hesitated to discuss it here, but we must overcome the fear, shame, and judgement regarding mental health and wellness to heal. Let's start with kindness and compassion rather than fear.

When finding ourselves reacting in ways we don't like, or when we are confused by our reactions, it's important to reflect to identify our shame triggers, how we react to feeling vulnerable, and find ways to respond more mindfully. Identifying these type of shame triggers helps us gain strength and stay present in the moments when we feel vulnerable rather than reacting out of fear and shame.