The kind of relationship you have with yourself influences everything in your life. It determines how you manage your relationships, colleagues, how much opportunity comes your way, and even how well you sleep at night.

So let’s talk about improving your self-connection so you can feel happier and be more fulfilled in life and work.

5 Ways to Improve Self-Connection

Improving your self-connection begins by taking your values, beliefs, feelings, standards, and goals seriously. In a way, these are commitments you make to yourself and the person you’re becoming. 

Are you perfect? No. You have weaknesses and strengths. Much of life is trial and error anyway. Realize that you made the best decisions you could make with the information you had at the time. Your choices served you, maybe not always in healthy or positive ways, but they served a purpose. So be your own best friend! Learn to give yourself the gifts of empathy and self-compassion.

To improve your self-connection and strengthen your self-worth, practice these five habits.

1. Practice Self-Acceptance: Acknowledge Your Likes and Dislikes

You have likes and dislikes. Accept them. Don’t change the way you live to please other people. Be you! Show up as you are, strengths and weaknesses, good and “bad.” 

We’re not saying to be lazy, selfish, and obnoxious, where you don’t make an effort to improve and become better. No! But don’t compromise who you are to please others or to fit in because that’s a miserable way to live. 

Embrace and celebrate your individuality! Know what you stand for! And know what you won’t tolerate! Once you have a clearer understanding and have made peace with yourself, you can do more of what makes you happy.

2. Be Kind to Yourself

Stop being your own worst enemy, okay? Please stop criticizing, finding fault, and shaming yourself. Show yourself some mercy and compassion; and throw in a little forgiveness while you’re at it, too.

Why not try this for a change: Find something you appreciate about yourself the next time you look in the mirror. It doesn’t have to be a physical trait. Maybe you’re persistent, determined, optimistic, charming, friendly, generous, kind, have a winning smile, etc. Just find something good about yourself to appreciate!

And consider taking thirty seconds to practice affirmations while you’re at it: “I am loving,” “I am a person of kindness, forgiveness, and love,” “I am worthy of happiness and success,” as a few examples. There are hundreds more. Google “affirmations.”

3. Listen to Yourself

Listen to your gut. If you have a hunch that something doesn’t seem quite right, pay attention! Even if it’s difficult, uncomfortable, or goes against what others are telling you, take heed.

You’re an amazing person with faith, beliefs, emotions, and conscience that are communicating to you all the time. When you listen to what your body, gut, and spirit tell you, you’ll feel inner peace and a sense of belonging.

After a while, you’ll better understand these subtle cues and promptings.  

4. Practice Good Habits

Creating healthy habits improves self-connection. Start from when you first wake up in the morning to when you go to bed.

Some of these healthy habits include:

• Exercise regularly
• Actively plan and enjoy healthy, well-balanced meals
• Journaling
• Write down positive affirmations
• Practice mindful meditation
• Smile more often

5.  Appreciate Progress 

Perfectionism poisons happiness and strangles ambition. Perfectionism causes depression, trapping you in a vicious cycle of self-blame and negativity, leading you to a dark, lonely place.

Avoid this toxic cycle of misery by acknowledging you’re not perfect! You will mess up; things won’t always go as planned! So what? Realize you didn’t fail; you got feedback. 

Maybe you set a goal of going to the gym five times a week. You knock it out of the park the first couple of weeks but then miss a few days.  

You have two options: Quit or adapt and keep going! Which is better? Keep going. Even scaled back progress is better than no progress.

You may apply this approach to any area of life, your diet, sleep, and work goals. Show yourself a little love by appreciating your effort and progress, even when it misses the mark; perhaps the target is a little unreasonable anyway.  

Conclusion

Each of these five habits boosts self-esteem and improves your connection with yourself. Make your life and relationship with yourself one of your top priorities! You can only give what you become. So, to give more, become more. And to become more, you must give time, effort, and focus to your relationship with yourself. 

Practicing these habits daily keeps you grounded and forms a strong, well-balanced connection to yourself. Only then can you start living in alignment with who you truly are and unlock your best life.

The post 5 Ways To Improve Self-Connection & Be Happier with YOU appeared first on Lifestyle.

According to dictionary.com, resentment is “the feeling of displeasure or indignation at some act, remark, person, etc., regarded as causing injury or insult.”

The crazy thing is that even if your feelings of resentment are merited, the only person resentment hurts is you. Resentment is a kind of emotional suffering. Who wants that?

Here are 5 important tips to help you avoid one of the most toxic elements in any relationship: resentment:

1. Don’t assume, ASK!

Look, sometimes life gets in the way of us feeling cared for and loved. The stress and demand of daily life can consume those who are closest to us, distracting their focus and draining their energy. Sometimes, they appear disinterested or aloof, but they’re really not.

It’s easy to make assumptions when that happens. Maybe something IS wrong. But most of the time, everything is probably okay.

But we ignore what’s bothering us because we don’t like conflict and don’t want to cause trouble if there really isn’t any.

Ignoring issues, whether real or imagined, doesn’t make them go away, it makes them grow until they get blown out of proportion.

We don’t bring up certain issues because we’re afraid to confront our loved ones and shy away from conflicts. But by doing this, you’re pushing away your partner without actually realizing it. And all this does is give life to your feelings of resentment – all because you made assumptions instead of asking.

Don’t make assumptions. Ask. It’s almost always better to discuss what’s on your mind and heart (in non-accusatory ways) than to ignore and assume.

2. Create solutions, not problems

Feelings of resentment often lead to blame and defensiveness. All this does is make things worse. Instead, strive to show empathy and understanding. Your partner will see that you understand – or are at least trying to. Your gentle spirit will lead to collaboration and solutions. 

3. Give each other some space

As your relationship grows and matures, it’s healthy to find something you both enjoy doing on your own. Neither partner should consume or engulf the other. Each of you has a life to live.

Giving each other the gift of space is a way to maintain your sense of self, while giving you something to chat about, so it’s a win-win.

Taking some “me” time and distancing yourself could be something you do once a week, or once a month; the point is to make yourself a priority during that time, so you came back into the relationship with fresh eyes and a new sense of longing.

4. Don’t let the small things fester

Wouldn’t it be so much easier if your partner just apologized when appropriate? Life would be so simple and lovely, and a romance movie. But it’s not always like that because you’re two imperfect people. It’s normal to have arguments, big and small.

Everyone feels angry and hurt from time to time. Just don’t dwell on those feelings. Step back and identify why you feel angry or hurt. What’s causing it? Once you’ve identified the source, you can deal with the issue, assuming it needs to be dealt with at all.

You and your partner should be pillars of strength for each other. Remember, you’re on the same team.

5. Communicate to understand

Talking and listening requires a bit of vulnerability, which can be difficult at times, especially if you harbor feelings of mistrust or resentment. But there’s no way around it, opening up is crucial in a healthy relationship.

The goal is to understand where your partner is coming from.

Talk honestly with your partner and ask to be really listened to, and really listen to them. Listening and understanding busts through any barriers either one of you put up as a defense mechanism.

Listen without judgment when it’s your turn to be attentive to your partner. Practicing these confidence-boosting techniques will bring you and your loved one closer together.

Relationships need thoughtfulness and nurturing. But how many times do we say or do something without thinking it through?

But the truth is it does matter, and over time, some of these things linger and fester into something ugly that brings out the bad in everything and ultimately suffocates any good relationship.

Resolving issues before they get out of hand is the key to avoiding resentment and enjoying a happy, healthy relationship.

Photo by Khamkéo Vilaysing on Unsplash

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