I’m not a fan of that whole idea that you have to love yourself before you can love somebody else. It wasn’t until I met my partner that I really started to figure out a lot about myself and the life I had been living.

Still, there is no denying that self-love can and should be a goal for us. It might look different for me than it does for you or someone else. It can cause a powerful change in how we treat and advocate for ourselves.

You’ll be a little better off from a mental health standpoint.

Many of our internal doubts and worries come from how we feel about ourselves. Learning to love yourself may not eliminate other mental health issues, but it is possible that it can help how we react to episodes of depression and other issues.

If you’re spending more time building yourself up than you are tearing yourself down, you’re likely going to feel a little better about yourself. You’re going to feel a little more confident. This can lead to being less easily influenced by negative emotions that are easy to get caught up in.

You’ll be more motivated.

Motivation is needed for a whole host of things, but it isn’t always easy to find. When we’re in pain and dealing with illness fun, motivation for a lot of things is definitely at the bottom of the pile.

It doesn’t have to be, though.

We often get motivated when we’re trying to advance our personal health with health care providers and the like. Some of us (read: me) are much better at being motivated under pressure or deadlines… which isn’t healthy necessarily.

If you’re more in-tune with yourself and what you need, you may be more motivated to practice self-care or read a book or do things that nourish your soul.

You’ll make healthier decisions.

When we love ourselves more fully, we take better care of ourselves. Sometimes, that can be just because of how we are feeling or because we fight more for ourselves. After all, our self-worth is tied heavily into how we treat ourselves – and vice versa.

Just like with motivation, we might feel a little more inspired to take a night off from our routine and sleep extra. We might be better at eating and drinking more regularly.

You’ll develop better empathy and compassion skills.

When you treat yourself with a little more respect, that tends to carry over into how you treat others.

Really, you can’t have one without the other.

In order to love yourself to the fullest, you have to be willing to consider why things may have happened or why choices were made. That understanding, combined with forgiveness, is really what empathy and compassion are all about.

Once you can better understand and forgive yourself, it’s incredibly easy to understand motives behind others’ actions at the very least.

You’ll begin to accept and value yourself.

Acceptance isn’t an easy street to go down. It means that we have to face and accept everything – the good and the bad – about ourselves.

It is also one of the most freeing things. That acceptance can help alleviate stress and remove any burdens that we might carry.

It leads us to better decisions, sticking to our boundaries, and caring for oureslves more fully.

Have you worked on self-love? What has it helped you with?