Sometimes it’s hard to know how to increase self-love. We want to love ourselves, but we can’t get our inner mean girl to stop pointing out our flaws. With gratitude flips, we can turn the things we don’t like about ourselves into things we’re grateful for. Free printable to help you love yourself.
Oftentimes I find myself falling into this trap of listing all the things I don’t like about myself or that I’m angry about.
“I wish my stomach were flatter.”
“Why is it so hard for my hair to hold curl?”
“It’s not fair that my skin is so dry.”
It happens more than I’d like to admit. Maybe you’ve been there too.
But How Do We Change It?
When I get into this mindset, it’s pretty miserable. Plus, I then find it easier to find even more faults and flaws. And then I get bitter. And then I have a hard time looking in the mirror, living my life, and loving on the little ones around me. It doesn’t feel good.
One day I thought, ENOUGH! How can I put a stop to this? I don’t like feeling this way and it’s not doing anyone any good. How can I change this?
The thought that came to my mind was this: GRATITUDE
Gratitude Changes Everything
When we feel gratitude, it’s hard to think negatively. Gratitude creates an abundance mindset. It turns what we have into something amazing. It doesn’t allow us to feel jealousy or bitterness or hate. Gratitude holds extreme power.
So it only makes sense that in order to get rid of hurtful, unkind, bitter thoughts, we have to feel gratitude instead. I tried it and something amazing happened: I started to feel better. I started to look at myself in a more positive light. I even started to feel grateful for the things I once hated.
Do Your Own Gratitude Flip
So how can you make this work in your own life? Follow these two steps:
- List something you DON’T like about yourself (or think you don’t like about yourself 😉).
- Write a reason you are GRATEFUL for that thing you “don’t like.”
Examples of Gratitude Flips
For example, I don’t like my skin. It’s always been on the dry side, but in the past couple years it’s taken that dryness to the extreme. I’ve also started to get a lot of redness in my cheeks over the past year that I’ve never dealt with before. These are both new things I’m learning to deal with, and they caused me to hate my skin. But when I did the gratitude flip, I realized that I’ve never really dealt with bad acne. Sure, I get an occasional zit or two (usually around my period), but it’s never been a real issue. And I’m extremely grateful for that! Now I look at my skin in an entirely new light.
Or say you don’t like your arms. Your gratitude flip could be that your arms allow you to hold and cuddle your kids when they’re hurt or sad or sick.
If you don’t like your laugh, your gratitude flip could be that you have a reason to express such extreme joy in the first place.
If you wish you were smarter, your gratitude flip could be that you’re grateful you have an opportunity to learn and stretch yourself.
Tip: When thinking about physical things (like body parts) that you don’t like, think about what those body parts DO instead of how they look. Maybe you hate your eyes, but do you love that they allow you to see? Or maybe you can’t stand your thighs, but they allow you to chase after your little ones!
Make sense? Take what you don’t like and find something, no matter how small, that you appreciate about it.
Increase Self-Love
Try to do a gratitude flip for everything you dislike about yourself. If that list is too long, do as many as you have time for. It can be really challenging, and you might think it’s impossible at first, but I promise it’s worth the effort!
The goal is that you’ll be able to change your thinking and instead of looking at your perceived faults and flaws with negative eyes, you’ll be able to find reasons to be grateful for them. Who knows? Maybe, just maybe, you’ll be able to turn them into things you really love about yourself!
I created a printable to help you complete your gratitude challenge. You can download it here or by clicking on the image below.
What’s something you don’t like about yourself that you’ve learned to be grateful for? Let me know in the comments below!
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Britney is a wife and mom with a passion for helping other women see the good inside of them. She loves podcasts, polka dots, and dancing around the kitchen with her family.