26 Ways to Love Yourself More

"I screwed up."
"I'm so fat."
"I can't believe I just did that."

Are you harsh with yourself? You're not alone. Underneath virtually all of our suffering lies a lack of self-compassion and self-care. Here are 26 ways to love yourself more, offered by wise and compassionate teachers, writers, healers, and artists.

1. Drop Self-Judgment. "Self-compassion means dropping self-judgment every time I notice it—from eating too much chocolate last night to procrastinating writing my novel this morning to being envious of a friend this afternoon. It is the act of dropping my story that I am bad, wrong, less than, not spiritual, not progressing." – Jennifer Louden

2. Stay Present. "Self-compassion looks different from moment to moment. When I’m sad, it can look like crying sometimes but at other times it means giving myself a kick in the pants. The most important thing for me to remember is to stay present to my experience so I can be discerning about what self-compassion might mean in any given instance." –Susan Piver

3. Do What Brings You Energy. "Self-compassion is keeping a caring, gentle eye on my most important needs and desires—big or small and inner or outer—and giving myself the permission to do more of what brings me ease and energy, and less of what drains me." – Cigdem Kobu

4. Put Self-Care First. "My greatest challenge and learning from this practice is that self-care and compassion have to come first—not after I’ve taken care of others, or done my work for the day, but as my first priority." (Check out this list of 80+ Self-Care Ideas). – Sandi Amorim

5. Allow for the Hurts. "Self-compassion means truly honoring, and allowing for, our own suffering. To be with the hurts, the uncomfortable, the longings, and the hungers, and to offer value and substance to these experiences. More than that, to go further and to respond, in kind, to what the self is really wanting and needing." – Lisa Field-Elliott

6. Be Your Own Reliable Companion. "Self-compassion asks me to be my most reliable companion on the spiral staircase of life. I may have other companions along the way, but only my self will be with me 24/7." – Jennifer Matesa

7. Show Up for Yourself. "The most intimate relationship we will have in our entire lifetime is with ourselves. No one hears our hearts the way we do. No one knows our hurts the way we do. We are the sages of our soft spots and our edges. Self-compassion is showing up to that relationship with honesty and with love." – Jamie Ridler

8. Start with Boundaries. "I am developing a definition of self-compassion that starts with gentle but clear boundaries, especially in my parenting, supported by practices such as breathing and calming mantras to stay present to strong feelings that arise without being overwhelmed by them." – Kat McNally

9. Say YES to Yourself. "I love that the word 'compass' is nestled in that word compassion. So is the word 'passion.' In self-compassion, the compass points to yourself; the passion for self-understanding is part of our mission. Self-compassion is self-love, self-empathy, self-mercy. Self-compassion is the act of saying YES to yourself, of sending the message, 'I matter,' and of experiencing self-love even when self-loathing has the louder voice." – Courtney Putnam

10. Let Yourself Fail. "Self-compassion means not having to be right all the time. Letting myself off the hook if I’ve tried my best and things didn’t come out like I wanted. A lot of it is forgiveness. I get to be a mortal. I don’t have to be better or stronger than other people. I get to just be a fallible, wonderful, person like everyone else. It means I’m not special, but in a good way." – Laura Simms

11. Tell the Truth. "This is my self-compassion: Telling myself the truth with love and kindness. It’s not fancy, but it has changed my life. I say that with no exaggeration." – Anna Guest-Jelley

12. Remember: You are Born Innocent. "When I think of self-compassion, I often hear in my mind a line from Sarah McLachlan’s song 'Adia': We are born innocent. And then further, We are *still* innocent. We make messes of things absolutely, and hurt ourselves and one another in all sorts of ways. But at heart, I believe we’re each, given our genetic make-up and life experiences, doing the best we can." – Kristin Noelle

13. Ask Good Questions. It’s about using a kind voice to ask good questions: What would help right now? What do you need most? Or, What feels hardest?" – Andrea Sher

14. Tame Your Inner Self-Talk. "Unfortunately, my inner dialogue isn’t always kind or accepting. When I catch myself engaging in negative self-talk, I remind myself that I am enough, that I’m doing good work, and that I have friends and family who love me." – Tammy Strobel

15. Put Your Oxygen Mask on First. "I try to follow the model of my behavior toward the human I love and adore the most. Treating myself at least equally as well, if not better. The first time I heard a flight attendant instruct, 'Place the oxygen mask on yourself first, before assisting others with theirs,' the metaphor lit up. Immediately." – Mary Anne Radmacher

16. Choose to Swim. "I think there is a moment when you’re in the deepest depths of despair where you have to make a choice of whether you’re going to save yourself and swim towards the surface, or just let yourself drown. I chose to swim, and from that moment on I started learning how to take care of myself." – Susannah Conway

17. Be Your Own Perfect Mother. "The first thing that comes to mind when I think about self-compassion is being your own inner 'perfect mother.' She is the one that tells you everything is going to be OK and can always see your beauty, and knows when to listen. We all have this inside ourselves if we listen, even if your real mother is not anything like this." – Niight Wind

18. Practice Moment by Moment. "I practice self-compassion moment by moment. It lies in how I receive myself and what I’m experiencing. I practice awareness of self-judgment and my inner dialogue. I practice softening, allowing, embracing. The experience is energetic, emotional and somatic. It’s subtle. It’s not a button to push or switch to flip." – Rachel Cole

19. Forgive Yourself. "Oh, and how do I practice self compassion? Easy. I am constantly forgiving myself. Forgiving myself when I judge another to be wrong, when I judge myself as 'less than'… and judge the world for what I see as 'bad.' Practicing self-compassion is saying, 'I forgive myself, for I know not what I see or do,' over and over again." – Kerilyn Russo

20. Allow for the Unpredictable. "I believe self-compassion means allowing for the unpredictable nature of being human. It means being kind. It means allowing for plans to change, for the mountains to call, and for rest and retreat to be taken freely. It means beholding beauty as our birthright and our longings as legitimate. It means loving the self as much as, or more, than the other." –Lisa Field-Elliott

21. Discover Your Weird. "Self-compassion means discovering your own weird, being exactly who you are, and knowing that is the foundation of your strength and what you have to offer." – Julia Fehrenbacher

22. Say “I’m Sorry.” "Because I am imperfect, because I am flawed, I allow myself to make mistakes. I will bumble things and the wrong words will come out of my mouth. I will hurt you and I will hurt myself. But because my heart is good, I’ll know that I never meant to. And it’s this 'never meant to' that enables me to forgive myself and to forgive you too. I believe in the words, 'I'm sorry.' What else is there to say?" – Laurie Wagner

23. Recognize You're Not Alone. "Part of self-compassion is recognizing our common humanity. In essence, acknowledging that everyone is flawed: This is part of the human experience. It helps to remember that you’re not alone." – Barbara Markway

24. Be Kind. "It’s simply being kind to myself—meeting myself, whatever my emotional, physical or psychological state, with loving kindness. As simple, and difficult, as that!" – Marianne Elliott

25. Accept It All. "Self-compassion is drawing the circle around us bigger and bigger and bigger, to accept it all—all the glitter, all the dance, all the mud, and all the mess." – Sherry Richard Belul

26. Stop Expecting Perfection. "It’s when we stop expecting ourselves to be perfect and then beating ourselves up (mercilessly!) for falling short. It’s when we’re patient with ourselves the way we’d be with a child or our best friend....More and more, I try to love the crap out of myself." – Judy Clement Wall

Tips excerpted from the Self-Compassion Saturdays series on Jill Salahub's blog, A Thousand Shades of Gray, used with permission. You can read about the beginning of this series here.

You might also like this popular post: 80+ Self-Care Ideas.

Photos by Greg Markway (except for Self-Compassion Saturdays photo, which is by Jill Salahub).

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I am the co-author of Dying of Embarrassment, Painfully Shy, and Nurturing the Shy Child. Dying of Embarrassment: Help for Social Anxiety & Phobia was found to be one of the most useful and scientifically grounded self-help books in a research study published in Professional Psychology, Research and Practice. I’ve also been featured in the award-winning PBS documentary, Afraid of People. My husband, Greg, and I also co-authored Illuminating the Heart: Steps Toward a More Spiritual Marriage.