Life can feel constantly busy. With jobs to maintain, children to take care of, pets to cuddle, romantic dinner dates to plan, and everything in between, it can be hard to find any time for yourself to breathe, let alone accomplish any personal goals that have been on the back burner.

It may never seem like there is enough time, but working to make it happen can actually pay off dividends when it comes to succeeding at everything else.

The Most Important Self Love Lessons You Too Need to Learn

There are plenty of ways to take time for yourself and develop stronger self love skills. But if you are struggling, perhaps it is time to take a closer look at the habits of some of the younger members of our society. Working to extend the boundless wonder and kindness that is frequent in young children into your everyday life may be the purest form of self love out there.

Take, for instance, the sheer joy in the child’s face as they discover something new, color in a coloring book, or play outside in the snow. The art of capturing this compassion and excitement is often lost in adult life as responsibilities set in. Spending time with the ideal role models — kids — can work to help capture the pleasures that have been lost. 

3 Self Love Lessons to Learn From Children

Here are 3 self love lessons you too can learn children:

1. Create Together

Perhaps one of the biggest things most people lose as they enter adulthood is their ability to be unabashedly creative and expressive. Take, for example, any toddler who decides to dress themselves. Often times the clothing they choose isn’t what matches or even looks good together by conventional standards, but what they put on is the full encapsulation of their personality and general mood.

As adults, we often limit ourselves to what is professional, or at least styles that won’t evoke smirks from everyone we pass on the street.

Likewise, many adults lose a certain level of creativity. The majority of toddlers dance whenever music is put on regardless of who is watching and are not afraid to color outside the lines using unconventional colors. There are few adults who can say the same thing.

Capturing the essence of creative expression with kids can be a powerful way to boost your self love by letting your imaginative side free. Be creative together by dancing to whatever music comes on, dressing up in costumes, painting together, or taking silly photos that don’t immediately get deleted.

2. Learn Together

The next step is to get in touch with the wonder and excitement found when discovering new things. As kids, everything has the potential to be mind-blowing from seeing a real-life tiger in a zoo for the first time, to baking cookies, to planting garden vegetables. These everyday discoveries make a profound impact on children and can lead to new passions that develop into hobbies and even careers in the future.

There are multiple studies that indicate that this type of lifelong learning mentality can actually have huge positive impacts on your life as an adult. From an economic standpoint, lifelong learners are likely to make more money throughout their lives and have wider social circles. Furthermore, they are more likely to experience health benefits such as a decreased risk of degenerative neurological diseases.

When with kids, be involved in the things they are learning and build upon their excitement. Working on science, cooking, or home improvement projects together can be a great way to do this. For example, help with science projects on water conservation and build on that interest by doing home improvements to reduce water waste in your own home together.  

3. Relax Together

Finally, after a full day of self-indulgence and great times just being a kid, take time to relax together. Working on your mindfulness and teaching kids to take time to be mindful can be a great way to do this. The ability to calm yourself down and examine emotions is a powerful tool that can lead to some amazing results throughout life.

Mindfulness meditation and breathing exercises have been linked to a reduction in chronic stress, greater emotional regulation, enhanced ability to fight illness, improved academic and workplace success, and more. All of these things have branching benefits as well. For instance, reducing stress in day-to-day life can lead to better overall health, improved sleep, and a more positive overall mood.

With children, teaching mindfulness and breathing exercises is important from an early start and can help them manage negative emotions more effectively. There are multiple strategies and techniques for doing just that, and they can be really fun to learn to do together.

For example, working on bunny breathing by taking three quick sniffs through the nose and then one long exhale through the nose.

The importance of sel -love and self-care cannot be understated in our lives. Children are great examples and role models for the types of thought processes and activities that we can really benefit from such as creative expression and allowing ourselves to experience wonder.

Mindfulness and breathing exercises can also be great ways to wind down and reflect upon emotions and experiences throughout the day, so make sure to take the time to incorporate these practices into your life.

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