How I started my self-love journey

Last year at this time, I was feeling horrible. I was studying something I thought I’d love but ended up hating it. I forced myself out of bed every morning, was constantly feeling tired, kept making excuses, and all in all just felt miserable. Up to that moment, I had never felt that hopeless and at the end of my powers before. I most definitely was on the wrong path, and it took me a long time to realize and accept that. Read more on how to find out you’re on the wrong path here. So by the end of my second semester, I had lost all my self-confidence, I blamed myself and I hated what had become of me. But then I decided to change my situation. What I did? I started my self-love journey to find back trust and confidence. Here’s how.

I listened to my heart

Because it had been screaming for me to just stop, but for so long, I had been ignoring it completely. Jup. I did that. And the only thing I needed to do to listen to my heart was letting go of my expectations and being honest with myself.

I was honest with myself

I had known for a long time that I was just not enjoying it anymore. My heart knew, but I could not bear with the thought that maybe, I had been on the wrong path my entire life. I had designed my whole life towards this career path, yes, I basically had shut myself off to the rest of the world. I could and did not want to see anything else, because I was so dead sure that I was going to be a musician. Until I started to finally be honest with myself.

Me, as a big believer in honesty, had been lying to myself longer than I can recall. But I had to make this mistake to realize you can’t ignore your heart and expect it to be quiet.

You cannot ignore your heart and expect it to be quiet.

So when I was honest to myself, I managed to accept that I was not enjoying it. It felt terrible, because I was so full of fear of not knowing what I wanted and what else I could do. I was so afraid of the unknown, because I had never ever before stepped a foot into the unknown. I was so damn scared.

But still, when I finally accepted it, I became better. It was the first step towards self-love.

I took time

As you can imagine, it took a lot of courage to accept the situation, and as I already said, I was filled with fear. So when summer holidays finally came around, I decided that I needed time. I took that entire summer, the next semester, and am continuing to take time to discover more about myself and build up my trust. And this time has been the most precious gift I could have given to myself. This time is an investment in myself that I made because something had clicked in my mind. I knew that I needed to allow myself this. Now I know it was a call of my soul for love.

I started meditation and Yoga

So, I started my summer all down, freaked out and confused. I was afraid, still overthinking and caught in my head, and I definitely needed to find back some clarity. So I gave meditation a try. And it turned out amazing. I had finally found a way to reconnect to myself and get out of my head, back into life. It was a huge step towards my self-love journey, because I realised that nothing actually was as bad as I thought it was. I understood that I had a say in how I was feeling. All I needed to do to feel better was…

I Stopped the overthinking

When I was not feeling good, all I could think of was how miserable I was. I dwelled in self-pity and self-doubts, I had bad sleep, and I could not be satisfied. Also, I wished I would become ill so that I did not have to go to the University. Yes, I so did that! Anyway, at some point, with help from friends and my new meditation practice, I found out that I should stop the overthinking to make myself feel better. Man, did that relieve me! Stop the overthinking made me find trust. Think less, trust more. Think less, live more. Living with trust has definitely changed my entire life.

Think less, trust more. Think less, live more.

Trust

Trusting myself and life calmed me down and helped me breathe again. All that had ever prevented me from being honest with myself before now was not that disturbing anymore. How does that trust look like? It resides in knowing that you are always just right the way you are and where you are, and that everything is going to be fine, no matter what. Read more about that important notion in this post.

I became resistent to pressure from the outside

When I learned to trust myself and life, it helped me become resistant to pressure from the outside. The type of pressure from your family, shocked about you wanting to quit. The pressure from the expectations of the society you have grown up in. The pressure from your own expectations! So the answer to relieving that pressure was found: Trust.

“I am always just right the way I am and where I am, and everything is going to be fine, no matter what.”

I decided to climb into the driver seat of my life

When I learned to trust and became resistant to pressure, I was finally able to take responsibility for my life. I decided to go from living a passive life to becoming active and start doing something instead of just pitying myself and always playing the victim. Like this, I was able to decide to to face the fear of the unknown with trust and love for myself. I decided actively to now finally climb into the driver seat of my life and make constant choices for me and my future.

I took a decision. And with that, I did the first step to letting go of the old, frightened and constantly undecided version of me. Like this, I did the first step towards breaking free of the habits of the passive Claudia of my past, I went from letting life happen to me to taking responsibility for myself and create my destiny.

I took the decision to pursue my best life, as I know now that I deserve to find peace and happiness, because I found a door to the love for myself.

And I am never going back.

I know that I deserve peace and happiness, because I found a door to the love for myself.

And that’s what you can and should do, too! There is so much more to life! And you can enter a whole new standard of life if you only learn to love yourself! Read more about the benefits of self-love here if my story did not convince you, but then take that decision to start living your best life by taking what you get and create a life full of love and happiness!

If you liked this post and want to read more about self-love, then I have good news for you! I’m dedicating this year to self-love, and there will be at least one post on self-love each month! Stay updated by subscribing here!