Everyone seems to be in a rush these days. Between school, work, social commitments, family, social media, and more, it means personal time is scarce, if at all. While it may seem productive and impressive to always be working, it’s actually incredibly harmful. The brain needs downtime to process all of the information it receives everyday.

Practicing self-love and self-care allows you to unwind, relax, and find new ways to respect yourself. It gives the brain that downtime it needs. As the mom of a teenage daughter, it’s incredibly important you not only talk about self-love with her, but that you also set the example of what practicing healthy self-love looks like.

Love Always Wins

If your daughter has self-love, she’s able to respect her time, her body, and herself more. She’s less likely to be prone to depression. She’s more likely to make health choices and do what’s best for her. This isn’t the solution to everything, but practicing self-love a few minutes a day can instantly boost her mood and confidence.

When your daughter has self-love, she’s able to go about her life in a confident manner. She starts to gain confidence in her abilities to make decisions and perform the skills she needs. She doesn’t tolerate other people trying to take advantage of her or put her down for being herself. She learns all of this from you and the way you love yourself.

Self-Love Practices

There are so many ways to practice self-love. Your daughter learns a lot by watching you and the way you act towards yourself. When you talk down about your body while you’re shopping, she internalizes that. When you put unhealthy food into your body and skip out on exercise, she internalizes that. Being a good example for her will not only improve your life, but will help your daughter improve hers.

The best practices are the ones she enjoys and gets excited about. It’s all about what gets her motivated to actually continue with them and make them a part of her everyday routine. The act of self-love shouldn’t be something which requires a ton of effort, and it doesn’t have to cost much either. But it does have to be intentional.  Whatever she chooses, it shouldn’t involve sitting on the couch watching TV or scrolling through social media. She needs to step away from the screens and let her mind wander.

Some self-love practice ideas are:

Self-Love is the Best Practice

Your daughter’s life will be infinitely better when she loves herself. The best thing you can do for her as her mother is to show her how to love herself, by loving yourself. Take care of yourself. Schedule out personal you time. Let her know why you’re doing it and what it means for both of you. Not only will you be refreshed and ready to take on any of the obstacles that come your way, your daughter will respect you for putting yourself first. And, she will learn to do the same for herself.

Our children are important. While every aspect of that is true, they shouldn’t be the most important aspect in your life. This recent article from Smart Parenting breaks down exactly why you should focus on your marriage and yourself, before you focus on your kids. Loving yourself and loving your spouse gives your daughter an example of what a healthy relationship with yourself and your spouse looks like. It gives her an example of what to strive for and how to achieve it through following your actions.