This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at DePaul chapter.
In honor of National Eating Disorders Awareness Week, Her Campus has started up the #LovingMe project to promote self-love among all us lovely Collegiettes! We are supposed identify what we love about ourselves and snap a picture of it with the hashtag #LovingMe attached.
It’s hard when you’re a college student to find time to love and appreciate yourself. Between stress from classes, keeping up with friends and family, and deciding what to do with the rest of your life, it’s easy to get swept up in anything but yourself. So how can you refocus, and why is it so important to love yourself?
Introspection is an important step when checking in with yourself. Make sure you’re eating enough, make sure what you’re eating is good for your body, and check your exhaustion level. What you eat (and, in turn, how much energy you have) can do one of two things: it can take a toll on you or it can make life a lot easier.
The best way to get introspective: yoga. The Ray has free Intro classes throughout the week, and I always find it’s the best way to force myself to check in and focus on my energy.
Giving yourself some much needed “me time” is the key to calming down. Hanging out with friends is fun, and doing homework is a necessary evil of life, but in the hustle and bustle of everyday life, do you ever just take a minute or an hour or a day and hang out with yourself? If you don’t, you’re missing out on understanding yourself and the ability to reset your stress levels.
The best way to spend your “me time:” go on a self-date. Take yourself to the movies, grab a cup of coffee and a book, or sit down with your favorite TV show and just binge watch a few episodes. It will feel awkward the first time you do it, but once you get past that barrier, your mind will become clearer. You might be confronted with negative thoughts and feelings, and that is OK. Repressing them is a whole heck of a lot worse than admitting they exist.
The most important thing you’ll do is live in the moment. It’ll force you to assess how you’re doing, and hopefully you’ll de-stress a little bit and there will be more room for Loving Yourself.
So tell us, DePaul, how do you tell yourself, “I am #LovingMe”?