Self Love And Gratitude During Quarantine

Originally written May 7, 2020

I have been struggling with self-love a lot recently. After beating around the bush, I finally admitted to my therapist and myself that even though I’m pretty sure I like myself, I don’t know if I love myself. This is my own personal struggle, but I’ve been hearing friends being too hard on themselves recently, being quarantined, so I figured I would write down my feelings about it and hopefully, my musings can help someone out who may be feeling similarly.

To increase my self-love right now, and with the help of Gretchen Geraghty (my favorite YouTuber) I have been focusing on gratitude. I started a gratitude journal at the beginning of quarantine, and it has helped me feel more positive every day. I try to list at least five things that I am grateful for every day; sometimes it’s more than five and sometimes it’s less, and sometimes I skip a day by mistake, but I don’t beat myself up about it. I use my gratitude journal to flip the perspective on seemingly negative situations and try to find the silver lining. I ask myself, “What is there to be grateful for in this situation?” It can be hard to do, but it always makes me feel a little bit better when I learn to be grateful about what life has thrown my way, and it has helped shift my mindset in a more positive and motivated direction.

Bringing this back to my struggle with self-love recently, I have specifically been feeling insecure about my body and hopeless about finding a job or internship.

To flip this and figure out what I can be grateful for in this situation, I ask myself “What am I grateful for about my body? I am grateful for everything my body does for me. I am grateful I am able to move.

And what am I grateful for in regard to not having a job or feeling motivated for finding a job? I am grateful that I have an amazing support system, and even if I can’t find a job right now I am surrounded by people who love me. I am grateful that I have enough motivation to keep doing little things every day that are helping to build my resume and adding skills to my repertoire. I am grateful for the break I am being provided right now so I have time to get this blog together.

I am still learning to love myself for everything that I am, but I am happy that learning how to be grateful has helped me so much, and I think it will be a key in my journey to self-love and happiness.

I know it can be hard to remember what you are grateful for when you might feel trapped, the world seems scary and the future is unknown, but if you can think of at least one thing you are grateful for everyday, I promise you will feel a little better.

So this is your daily reminder to cut yourself some slack, love yourself, and be grateful for all the wonderful and amazing things that you do have in your life. You are allowed to feel however you are feeling, but remember you are a QUEEN (or king) at the end of the day, you are loved, and you’re amazing.