Have you been short-changing yourself on self-care, saying critical or hurtful things to yourself, or setting unrealistic expectations for yourself?
Are you ready to embrace your worthiness and start treating yourself with love?
These inspirational self-love quotes can help you stay motivated, practice self-compassion, and promote self-love and self-acceptance.
Why You Need Self-Love
Loving ourselves and prioritizing our needs is often very challenging. Unfortunately, many of us didn’t receive the love we deserved as children and this sets the stage for difficulty loving ourselves. We grow up feeling unlovable, damaged, inadequate, and unworthy. So, we overcompensate with perfectionism, people-pleasing, and over-working – all efforts to earn approval and feel worthy of love.
But this is never effective because love and acceptance have to come from within. Yes, receiving love from others is important, but it doesn’t take the place of self-love. In fact, unconditional love from others in the absence of self-love can feel phony and uncomfortable because if we don’t feel lovable, it’s hard to believe that others genuinely love us.
Not only is self-love essential for healthy relationships, but it also allows us to set boundaries, be assertive, pursue our interests and goals, practice self-care, and feel good about ourselves.
Quotes to Inspire Self-Love
Even if self-love doesn’t come naturally, you can learn to love yourself more. Learning anything new takes practice and patience. If at times, you feel discouraged or unworthy, these inspirational quotes about self-love can keep you motivated.
- “Did your mom ever tell you, ‘If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything’? She was right–and talking nicely also applies when you’re talking to yourself, even inside your head.” – Victoria Moran
- “Loving yourself…does not mean being self-absorbed or narcissistic, or disregarding others. Rather it means welcoming yourself as the most honored guest in your own heart, a guest worthy of respect, a lovable companion.” – Margo Anand
- “Too many people overvalue what they are not and undervalue what they are.” – Malcolm S. Forbes
- “One of the greatest regrets in life is being what others would want you to be, rather than being yourself.” – Shannon L. Alder
- “When I loved myself enough, I began leaving whatever wasn’t healthy. This meant people, jobs, my own beliefs and habits – anything that kept me small. My judgement called it disloyal. Now I see it as self-loving.” – Kim McMillen
- “Be the love you never received.” – Rune Lazuli
- “Until you value yourself, you won’t value your time. Until you value your time, you will not do anything with it.” – M. Scott Peck
- “To accept ourselves as we are means to value our imperfections as much as our perfections.” – Sandra Bierig
- “It’s not selfish to love yourself, take care of yourself, and make your happiness a priority. It’s a necessity.” – Mandy Hale
- “You’re always with yourself, so you might as well enjoy the company.” – Diane Von Furstenberg
- “The journey isn’t about becoming a different person. It’s about loving who you are right now.” – Suzanne Heyn
- “You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection” Buddha
- “Plant your own garden and decorate your own soul, instead of waiting for someone to bring you flowers.” – Veronica A. Shoffstall
- “Loving yourself isn’t vanity. It’s sanity.” – Katrina Mayer
- “There are days I drop words of comfort on myself like falling leaves and remember that it is enough to be taken care of by myself.” – Brian Andreas
- “Lighten up on yourself. No one is perfect. Gently accept your humanness.” – Deborah Day
- “Accept yourself, love yourself, and keep moving forward. If you want to fly, you have to give up what weighs you down.” – Roy T. Bennett
- “Love yourself enough to set boundaries. Your time and energy are precious. You get to choose how you use it. You teach people how to treat you by deciding what you will and won’t accept.” – Anna Taylor
Do some of these quotes about self-love resonate with you? It often helps to keep them handy (write them on post-it notes and leave them on your bathroom mirror, make a screen saver for your phone, write them in your journal) so you can easily refer back to them when the going gets tough.
©2019 Sharon Martin, LCSW. All rights reserved.
Photos from Canva.com.
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The Self-Love Guided Journal
I created the Self-Love Guided Journal to help you rediscover who you are, accept yourself – imperfections and all, and learn to treat yourself with kindness. It includes reflective questions, journal prompts, inspirational quotes, and a healing meditation to help you develop positive thoughts and feelings about yourself. Find out more by clicking HERE.
Dr. Sharon Martin
Sharon Martin, DSW, LCSW is a psychotherapist and writer specializing in codependency recovery. For the past 25 years, she’s been helping perfectionists and people-pleasers overcome self-doubt and shame, embrace their imperfections, and learn to set boundaries. Dr. Martin writes the popular blog Conquering Codependency for Psychology Today and is the author of The CBT Workbook for Perfectionism and The Better Boundaries Workbook.
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