You can use self-love journaling as a tool to enhance your self-love practice. You can use it to reflect on large portions of your life or to reflect on a specific moment in time.

• How have you overcome struggles or obstacles in your Self-love Diet?
• What successes have you experienced?
• What revelations have occurred for you while actively working on bringing more self-love into your life?

Here are 7 aspects of the Self-Love Diet that you can use as a guide to help you get the most out of your self-love writing practice.

7 Paths of The Self-Love Diet

Body

How can you love your body?

Give examples of challenging times with a positive “turn around” through appreciation, gratitude or focusing on what your body does for you vs. what it looks like.

For example: I rub my Body Love lotion on my belly and tell it I love it because it’s the one area of my body that I used to criticize daily. I noticed that my  love for my belly grew as my critical thoughts dissipated.

Emotions

How can you love yourself when you experience difficult emotions?

Show examples of self-love through the ability to self-soothe without using eating disordered or addictive processes. Give examples of how your thoughts or behaviors had a positive effect on your emotions.

For example: I noticed I was going to the pantry looking for cereal to eat. I stopped and went through my check list of emotions HALT: Was I hungry or hurt? Was I anxious or angry? Was I lonely? Was I tired? I noticed I wasn’t hungry; I was tired. Going to bed was a more loving choice than eating the cereal.

Thoughts

How can your thoughts reflect self-love?

Give examples of being aware of your thought processes by catching your thoughts and changing negative thoughts to positive thoughts, and give examples of the effect this had on your ability to experience self-love.

For example: I noticed I was focusing on what wasn’t going right one day. I began to feel frustrated. I caught my thoughts and consciously began to count my blessing. I felt so much better!

Spirit

How can your spiritual self increase your ability to love yourself?

Write about how focusing on your spiritual nature vs. your physical body allowed you to be more loving to yourself and others.

For example: I have a practice of looking into my self-love mirror. Rather than looking at my eyes, I look into my eyes, into my soul, and tell myself that my value does not depend on how I look, or what I do, but rather on who I am, a valuable, lovable human being. This also helps me to be more accepting and loving of others.

Relationships

How can your relationships help your Self-Love Diet?

Give an example of how your relationship with yourself is improving, or notice how you are improving your relationships with others, which empowers you to love yourself more.

For example: I notice less self-depreciating thoughts fly by. When they do, I let them go without hanging on to them. If someone compliments me, I receive it and enjoy it.

Saying “no” when I’m asked to do something for someone else that would take away important time with myself is an example of increasing my self-love and setting clear boundaries in my relationships. I notice my relationships strengthening.

Culture

How can I practice my Self-Love Diet in our weight obsessed culture?

Tell a story of how you were able to love yourself in spite of our unsupportive  culture or tell us how you created a self-loving culture.

For example: I’ve carefully chosen the magazines in the waiting room of my office. I don’t allow People, Cosmopolitan or other magazines that focus on the “ideal thin body” with images of airbrushed bodies. I’ve created a haven from these images for people who wait in my office.

Global

How can loving yourself translate into loving the world?

For example:  A by product of my personal Self-Love Diet is this book. By focusing on loving myself I’ve been able to share my knowledge and experience to help others. Since I no longer wake up each day focusing on what I am going to eat, or not eat, or what I weigh, I now have the energy to focus on helping others in the world.

I’m excited for you to start your self-love writing practice!

Blessings,

Michelle Minero