Affirmation Challenge Day 2 [Self-Love]: ‘I love myself unconditionally.’

This is Day 2 of the 15-Day Affirmation Challenge held in July 2014, where we practice positive affirmations for 15 days. The challenge is now over but you can do the tasks in your own time. Visit the overview page for all the challenge tasks.

Dear everyone, welcome to Day 2 of our 15-Day Affirmation Challenge! :D

Here is the overview of all the posts for the challenge so far:

Affirmation Challenge announcement and signup details: 15-Day Affirmation Challenge | 380 Participants!
Affirmation Challenge Day 1 [New Beginning] | 33 Comments

Let’s move to Day 2’s task, which is about…

Day 2: [Self-Love]

Today’s affirmation: “I love myself unconditionally.”

How many of us have carried self-hating thoughts before? Consider the following:

I hate myself.
I suck.
I’m so bad at this, I can die.
I wish I was born different.
I’m so slow/clumsy/stupid/[insert negative adjective]. I wish I had someone else’s brains/body/looks/ability/etc.
I hate [XXX] about myself.
I wish I were someone else.

If you have, you’re not alone. I used to carry strong self-hating thoughts, many of which were subconscious. When I was a kid, these self-hating thoughts were of myself as a person. (Many of these thoughts, I was not conscious of them — I would only realize them later on when I was older and referred to my personal journals, where I wrote about hating myself and wishing I was different.)

As I grew up and became more self-aware, these self-hating thoughts changed — they became more targeted, where I would dislike certain aspects of myself (as opposed to my whole self). While it may seem like hating parts of yourself is better than hating your whole self, the truth is that these thoughts are all of the same nature — they consist of hate for yourself. It took years of conscious personal development before I worked through these self-hate issues, one by one, as I’ve documented in multiple series on the blog.

Perhaps some of us have this belief of “If I become [XXX] or if I get [XXX], then I will like myself better.” A common example of this is our body, where people think, I’ll love my body if I become slimmer. (I’ll be dedicating an affirmation to physical looks later on in the challenge.) Another example is in the area of love, where you may have beliefs like “I can’t love myself when I can’t even get someone else to love me” or “I can only love myself / I’ll love myself more if I can get into a great relationship.” Yet another example is the area of achievements, where we feel that we must be at a certain level of achievement before we can love or accept ourselves: “I need to have X pay / Y job / Z status, or else I’m not deserving of anything.”

However, be it direct self-hate (“I hate myself” or “I suck”) or conditional self-love (“If I become [XXX], I’ll fully love myself”), they are no different in that they are rooted from self-judgment, self-disdain, and self-criticism. Real love is unconditional; it doesn’t have to fulfill any conditions, expectations, or criteria before it can be dispensed. Real love is all encompassing; it comes without judgment, and without assessment. Real love is everywhere in the universe and inside of us, at every second and every moment.

The question to you is: Are you ready to open your heart and experience this love for yourself; this love that has always been inside of you, ready to be received by you? Are you ready to love yourself unconditionally, even if in tiny steps, starting from today?

Today, your task is to start this process of self-love.

Your Task Today

Identify any self-hating thoughts you may have. For example:
- “I hate myself.”
- “I wish I have a different [XXX].”
- “I’m such a clumsy fool.”
- “I’m a pile of sh*t.”
Identify the reason behind this self-hate. For example:
- Perhaps you have the belief that you only deserve love if others love you. Hence, you spend half your life seeking affirmation from others and having yourself validated, as opposed to affirming and validating yourself.
- Or, perhaps your family has never been loving towards you, and has only reprimanded you or pointed out your flaws. Hence, you grew up not knowing how to love yourself, or even thinking that you don’t deserve love at all.
Change your self-hating thoughts. For example:
- “I love myself.”
- “I don’t need to be different to love myself. I can love myself now and strive for betterment all the same.”
- “I may make mistakes, but so does everyone. My perfection lies in my imperfections.”
- “I’m smart, positive, and caring towards others. I love that I have such wonderful qualities and I’m proud of myself for having them.”
Identify your action step(s) to love yourself today. What is ONE action (or more if you desire) you can take today to express self-love? For example:
- Take a long shower and appreciate every second of it.
- Buy myself this beautiful organizer that I’ve been eyeing for a while, that will be a crucial tool in planning my goals and action steps.
- Go for a nice foot massage at the local massage parlor.
- Read this book that I’ve been meaning to read but have been putting off for a while.
- Give myself a hug.
HUG YOURSELF. Like, REALLY hug yourself LIKE YOU’VE NEVER HUGGED ANYONE BEFORE. Feel every part of your body, your skin, and your soul, in your arms. Let go of your personal barriers, self-hate, and self-criticism — LET THEM GO, LET ALL OF THEM GO. Feel the warmth and love emanating from your body back into your arms and body. Close your eyes, pause for about 15 seconds, and just soak in this moment of self-love.
Say your new belief(s) and affirmation. Then, with your arms still hugging your body, say your new belief(s) out loud, along with today’s affirmation:
“I love myself unconditionally.”
(If you think it’s silly to say them out loud, you can say them silently in your heart.)

I encourage you to write down your new belief(s) and today’s affirmation so that you can always see them and commit them to your heart. Repeat them every day to yourself, for as many times and as long as needed, until they become part of your default thinking.

Affirmation Wallpaper: [Self-Love]

Today’s affirmation wallpaper, for download:

Download (right click and save): [1366×768] [1600×900] [1920×1080]

Share Your Results!

Share your results, check out other participants’ responses, and interact with each other in the comments section! Remember, this challenge is a community effort: by openly engaging in the discussion, not only will you help others, you’ll also help yourself.

If you think today’s affirmation has benefited you, do share it with your friends and family.

Once you’re done, proceed to Day 3 here: Affirmation Challenge, Day 3 [Ability]

(Images: Flower, Heart shape in sand)