5 Ways to Encourage Yourself




What can you do when you feel like you don't have anyone in your corner? You can  Encourage yourself! You might be thinking  "But how do I do that?"  How do I give myself support, confidence and hope?

Encouragement has become a big deal in my life. Dealing with a Chronic Illness is rough and can bring you down really fast. Every day can be discouraging and overwhelming. I came to a place where I had to encourage myself. I couldn't rely or wait around for anyone to bring me encouragement. I had to find it, seek it and look for it in my every day living. I needed it every single day to help me through the day, weeks, months and years of dealing with pain, suffering and the unknown.  Life is hard!  Encouragement has given me hope to keep living.

5 ways to Encourage Yourself. 

1. Accept yourself- The Lord created you, He doesn't make mistakes. Is there something about yourself that you have never truly accepted? Learn to accept your personality, your characteristics and your physical body. All of these make up the unique person that you were created to be. You can find encouragement by simply being you and learning to accept yourself.  There has never been anyone else like you in the history of time, now think about that for a minute!


2. Love yourself- The Bible says  "to Love your Neighbor as yourself" (Mark 12:31). Simply put, you can't love others if you don't love yourself!  You spend your whole life time with yourself so might as well learn to be your own best friend. You will also be able to love and serve others better when you have accepted and truly love yourself. Be patient, and kind to yourself. Discover what brings you hope and inspiration. Self discovery is a an awesome tool. Learn about yourself. You can do this by using Journal Prompts that ask you self discovery questions. There are online quizzes to learn your personality type and spiritual giftings.


3. Believe in yourself- Ask God for help and trust Him for all the details of your life. Believe in yourself because God put specific talents, giftings, spiritual gifts, characteristics and personality traits in you.  These are unique to you and His will for your life. Learn how to develop what He has given you. Set goals for yourself. Daily goals and long term goals that are healthy and attainable.

4. Feed yourself-  Feed your mind with positive, uplifting and good thoughts. The number one way to find encouragement is in God's Word. "For whatever was written in the past was written for our instruction, so that we may have hope through endurance and through the encouragement from the Scriptures." Romans 15:4  And in 1 Samuel 30:6, is says "But David encouraged himself in the Lord. "  Read God's word. Listen to His word with an audio bible. Look for Bible apps for your phone. Look for Devotionals to read in the morning or before you go to bed. Find what works the best for you and brings you the most encouragement.

Feed yourself positive self talk. Have you ever stopped and paid attention to what you say to yourself? It is very important that we feed our minds with good words. Do you have the same broken record of phrases that you say to yourself over and over? Perhaps when you are tired, frustrated or sad? I encourage you to take some time this week to be intentional about paying attention to that broken record. If it is positive and uplifting, good job! If it's not, try replacing the negatives with some positive. Or possibly use that as a sign that you need to pause and rest or get something to eat. You may just be tired and hungry!

Feed yourself life giving nutritional food. The simple truth is we feel better when we eat whole non processed foods. We will feel better as a whole when we eat good food. Start small. Pick a vegetable a week and incorporate it into your weekly meals. Drink more water. Experiment with new recipes. Make eating healthier fun. Find whole foods that you enjoy and focus on those. 

5. Support yourself- Support yourself by taking care of you. You only get one mind and one body in this life. Be sure to take time for personal self care. Alone time. Time to recharge.  Physical activity that you enjoy. Develop morning and evening routines. Be intentional of the little things you want in your life. Write them down. Put them somewhere you will see them. Check off daily routines until they become habits.  We can't support, help or take care of others if we are trying to give out of an empty vessel. You will begin to feel better about your life when you are supporting yourself physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually.

So, how can I put these 5 ways into practice? 

Try a journal exercise and answer the following questions. Use the answers to reflect and set some personal goals for yourself.

Journal Prompts:

1. Have I truly accepted myself? What areas have I struggled with in the past? What areas do I need to continue to accept?

2. Do I truly love myself? What are three things that I love about myself?  What are my strengths? What are my talents? What are my spiritual gifts?

3. Do I believe in myself? What are my passions? What do I love in life? What little things bring me joy?

4. Am I feeding my mind and body the best things possible? Is my thought life positive? Is the majority of my food choices whole unprocessed foods? How can I begin to make healthier food choices? What vegetable do I want to try? What fruits do I want to try?

5. Do I support myself or is all my time and energy spent on others? (The key to this is a healthy balance) Do I regularly have down time to relax?  What relaxes me? What physical activities do I enjoy? What brings me joy?

Bonus: Two things that didn't make the list that I have discovered bring me Encouragement are:

1. Being out in Nature- Being outside and enjoying God's Creation somehow puts things back into perspective and makes me feel refreshed and encouraged.

2. Helping others- There is such a joy when we can help someone in a tangible way or by simply giving a piece of Encouragement to someone else!

I hope these bring some inspiration to you and that you can start to put these into practice to bring yourself encouragement.

Join the Conversation

If you can think of other ways that bring encouragement please leave a message. I would love to hear them!

Love and Prayers ❤

-Amber


Resources:
1. Mark 12:31
2. Romans 15:4










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