The Most Important Relationship Is with Yourself

One of the most important things to learn in life is how to have a relationship with yourself. Unfortunately, it also happens to be one of the most difficult things to learn. The concept of a self-relationship, selflove, and selfcare is not a new one, but the reason it’s such an elusive thought has much to do with our culture.

Western culture is all about erasing the individual and establishing an “average”. We see this in the way schools employ a general approach towards teaching. We see this in the way doctors diagnose certain ailments based on what the standard is. We also see this in the way society pressures certain people to fit in a mold based on what the local norms are.

It's hard to have a relationship with yourself when the society you live in does not encourage you to explore and connect with yourself. However, it’s never too late to learn how to do it.

Why Your Relationship with Yourself Is the Most Important

The person you spend time with the most is yourself. Without a proper self-relationship, being your own person and spending time with yourself becomes difficult. When you start to develop this relationship, the path towards personal growth becomes less tumultuous.

Nurturing a relationship with yourself is important because it enhances your quality of life. When in a relationship with yourself, you can expect to:

• Feel more confident

• Look after yourself better

• Strengthen your relationship with family and friends

• Feel and look healthier

• Solidify your independence

• Learn to think positively

Having a relationship with yourself is a skill that can change your life. When you learn how to depend on yourself in your times of need, your problems become less stressful and easier to manage. Of course, this doesn’t mean that you need to be alone all the time, but when you’re going through a tough time and you can’t lean on anyone, there’s nothing better than knowing that you can power through it all by yourself.

How to Improve the Relationship You Have with Yourself

It is often said that you should treat yourself the way you would want a partner to treat you. However, a slightly better idea would be to take care of yourself as if you were your own child: with unconditional love and a lot of patience. A big part of this is practicing selfcare. Selfcare is an important aspect of living life, since it encourages you to live a healthier lifestyle.

Selfcare is all about doing what’s right for you. It involves taking care of your physical, mental, and emotional health. Not everyone is the same, which means that you need to take the time to experiment and set up a selfcare routine that works for you. We all have different things that we value in life, which is why it’s better to give a framework rather than a step-by-step guide.

• Physical Health

When taking care of your physical health, it’s all paying attention to your body and giving it what it needs. Do not neglect any ailments you have and nurse your body when ill.

Exercise in a way that suits you and your goals. Do so not because you want to fit societal beauty standards, but because you love your body and want to give it the best. Don’t consider eating healthy food a “diet”. You are nourishing your body so that it functions as efficiently as possible.

Establish a hygiene routine that makes you feel good. You can find a safe space in many hygiene rituals that allow you to center yourself as you wash away all the negativity in your life.

• Mental Health

Depending on how you handle stress, you can take care of yourself by either reaching out to others or spending some one-on-one time with your thoughts. If you are stressed, it’s important that you carve some time out of your day in order to address the negativity, process your emotions, and let them out in a productive way. It's beneficial that you learn how to do this by both relying on others and on your own.

• Emotional Health

A relationship with ourselves requires us to address our emotional needs in a healthy way. This is one of the most difficult aspects of selfcare because in order to handle our emotions, we must first confront them. Human beings have a tendency to ignore our emotions in order to maintain a certain cognitive stability.

You can break free from these mental traps by paying attention to your mental health. This will give you the clarity you need to address your emotions in a healthy way.

The Relationship You Have with Yourself Is the Most Complicated

Because of the way our mind works, we tend to have an incredibly complicated relationship with ourselves. Aside from the society we live in, the way we naturally process emotional trauma affects how we view ourselves.

Luckily, the concept of a self-relationship has been studied extensively in many areas of life, from a religious, psychological, artistic, and scientific point of view. The many ways that exist of having a relationship with yourself gives us a good framework from which to work on.

Still, because there are so many paths you can take when it comes to a self-relationship, it can be overwhelming. In order to un-complicate a relationship with yourself, you can do the following:

• Set goals for yourself

• Try to be consistent with your selflove

• Understand that developing a relationship with yourself takes time

• Reach out and get help

If you need additional help, you can look into other resources for some guidance. Books like Grit & Grace: 7 Steps to Survive Heartbreak are great tools that can help with goal-setting, tracking your growth, and making the development of a self-relationship a lot simpler.

What to Do When Your Relationship with Yourself Falters

The relationship you have with yourself is the most important one, but maintaining it isn’t always easy. If you ever realize that you’re having difficulty maintaining a self-relationship, don’t dwell on it too much. Just as partners argue every now and again and children and parents clash, the relationship people have with themselves contains bumps on the road.

What you do is continue prioritizing the things that make you feel centered and at peace. Before you know it, you’ll have picked yourself back up.