Building a better relationship with yourself isn’t always on the top of your mind. It certainly isn’t always on my mind. However, it’s something I know that I need to work on. Since lockdown started in March, this has become easier for me. 

Here are a few tips from me:

Having a good work/life balance (or school/uni) 

This may sound like an obvious one but sometimes it is so hard just to say, “have some time for yourself”, when you are first off, enjoying the work you do and have a “to do list” to get through.

Allowing time to yourself or with friends and family, means that you don’t feel burnt out from working long hours and late into the night. It makes you have some relaxing time doing activities like sports or even cleaning the house. 

Splitting your time between yourself, friends and family

You may be thinking, “how can I do this in lockdown?”

However, following on from tip one, when we come away from work into our personal life, splitting our time between yourself, friends and family is also crucial in building a better relationship with ourselves. 

Whilst in lockdown, obviously more time was spent with ourselves (which I liked) but it still was important to still get that human connection with others. So, with staying covid safe, I have been facetiming people more, going for meals, walks and so on with family and friends. In my own time, I’ve read books, watched films, listened to music, worked towards my future and I even started writing a diary. 

Personally, I’m quite an introvert so sometimes actually getting myself to connect with others is slightly more difficult as I like my own company. However, I still do enjoy spending time with others. Having this balance is important because it allows you to still be able to connect with others but still have some down time to work on yourself and appreciate who you are more.

Finding out what your hobbies and likes are

As you grow older, your hobbies and interests change. This year, I turned 18 so what I like to do now would be different to what I would’ve liked to do when I was 15, for example. 

So, I have used lockdown to decide what my true likes and hobbies are and finding out if I need to change anything. For example, finding a new sport or staying with the same sports that I did before lockdown. 

Why would this make a difference?

It means that you can work out what works best for you as finding out what your true hobbies and likes are means you’ll enjoy what you are doing. This means you won’t feel like what you are doing in your personal life is a chore.  As well as this, you will become more confident and self-aware of yourself because you are focusing more on you and what your feelings are. 

Here are some links to more tips:

So, why is it important to have a good relationship with yourself?

Using these tips from both the links and from me, is important as it will allow you to prioritize more, be happier, you’ll be more sure of yourself and you take care of your needs more too.  

Overall, working on your inner self allows you to regulate your emotions more and you’ll be able to just stop and take a breather.. Lastly, once you have built a good relationship with yourself, you’ll be able to build good relationships with others around you.