In 2023, we’re all told we need to be practicing self-love. We’re told loving ourselves is a key to unlocking so many benefits when it comes to our love life, our health, our career, etc. But self-love isn’t exactly a one-size-fits-all approach to life, nor does self-love mean the same thing to everyone. Self-love is fluid and it’s volatile, and it’s not really something we can just achieve and never worry about again. It’s a process of skill-building, and it never stops evolving over time. But if self-love is so dependent on the individual, and building it can span our entire lifetime, how in the world do we know where to start our journey with it? Allira Potter doesn’t have all the answers — no one does — but she knows what works for her.
On their Instagram, Allira offers advice on all facets of self-love and well-being — from feeling confident in your body to morning routines to just saying no. Now, Allira is joining POPSUGAR’s Love Rants podcast host Melissa Mason to discuss what exactly self-love means to her, and how practicing it is a process that never ceases.
Allira Potter on Self-Love
“For anyone who doesn’t really understand what self-love is, it’s defined by you,” Allira tells Mel.
“It’s however you want to look after yourself. It’s however you want to treat yourself, respect yourself.”
What does Allira’s version of self-love look like?
“One: honouring my boundaries,” she says.
“Two: Making sure that I’m speaking to myself in such a positive way that I’m waking up and going, ‘I may not love certain things about my body right now but I’m just going to accept them and it’s going to be OK’. It’s also about nourishing and moving my body to whatever capacity that I possibly can each and every day.”
But Allira makes it very clear that they weren’t born loving themselves. There was once a time when, like all of us, she wasn’t giving herself the love she needed or deserved.
“In my early 20s, I hated everything about myself,” she shares.
“I was comparing myself to all my friends who were a size 8 or a size 10, and I would think ‘Why isn’t my body like that?’… It wasn’t until my late 20s leading into my 30s that I got into a positive mindset of thinking ‘I can’t change certain things about myself’. And that’s OK. People will love you for exactly the way you are, and if they don’t, that’s on them. It just got to a point where I was like ‘f*ck it!’ I’m just going to wake up every morning, look in the mirror and tell myself that I’m beautiful and I’m powerful and I’m worthy. Doing those little affirmations helped redefine my mindset and helped me just show up for myself.”
Listen to Allira’s full episode of Love Rants above.
READ MORE: LOVE RANTS
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- Tammi Sue: “Using Apps Can Minimise Shame That Might Come With Rejection”
- Melissa Mason: “Breakups Are Messy… And Messiness Is Fine”
- Carmen Azzopardi on the Journey of Self-Love and Sexuality: “I Don’t Think It Ends”
