Stress and anxiety often go hand in hand. When you feel stressed or anxious, your physical and mental well-being can suffer – You’re definitely not living your best quality of life if you experience these things on a regular basis.

Learning to love yourself can help to greatly reduce feelings of overwhelm.

Taking steps to understanding how these emotions manifest in the body and then discovering ways that self-love can combat them can help you to begin the work toward valuing yourself more. Not to mention you’ll be on your way to feeling better! It’s something we don’t really consider when we’re “in it”, but practicing self-love can become a powerful tool in combating stress and anxiety.

Stress is a physical reaction that occurs due to demands that are put on your body and brain. Sounds pretty simple? It absolutely would be, if we weren’t emotionally attached to our lives. (and everyone is – that’s completely normal!)

In today’s busy world, we’re expected to do so much and have so many obligations. It’s only natural that we will experience stress.

You likely experience stress quite often if you have a demanding job, family responsibilities, or a full plate of commitments. And anxiety can often be the result of stress. 

It’s feelings of worry, fear, or dread.

Sometimes these feelings are just under the surface. Other times, they can be quite debilitating. Stress and anxiety can lead to physical health problems as well as aggravate mental health conditions.

A sense of self-love can help to combat stress and anxiety.

When you value yourself, you take care of you. You put yourself first and prioritize your happiness. This gives you a strong foundation to make decisions that are in your best interest, rather than falling prey to things that lead to stress and anxiety.

When you love yourself, you learn to set boundaries. You won’t be as apt to give into people pleasing, overscheduling, or allowing disrespect.

Knowing your worth lets you take your own needs into consideration and can greatly aid in lowering the demands placed upon you from others or even your own inner critic.

There are ways you can practice self-love that’ll help you to greatly reduce the stress and anxiety in your life. Simply taking time to remind yourself of your value is a great start.

When you feel that you’re worthwhile, you’re better prepared to stand up to pressure from others (or even yourself).

You’ll intuitively protect yourself from negative influences by removing toxic people from your life. Letting go of those who regularly cause you to feel bad or anxious.

You’ll learn to trust your internal messages.

When you hear your inner critic pop up, take the time to examine what it’s telling you and then reframe the message in a way that’s more realistic.

You’ll be better prepared to deal with issues in a healthy and proactive way that doesn’t lead you to feel stressed out.

Increasing your self-love can go a long way in decreasing stress and anxiety.

As you focus more on loving yourself, you’ll find you feeling more in control and able to let go of the unnecessary demands in your life. You’ll start to notice that you feel lighter and better prepared to defend your boundaries when you develop a strong sense of who you are.

Identifying just how much stress you’re really under (and from where) can give you clarity on how to best focus your acts of self-love and self-care. Click below to download my free Stress Assessment to get a clearer idea of where you’re at right now. 

How do you practice self-love in your daily life? Is it something you want to improve upon? Let me know in the comments below!