First up, who is Kasper van der Meulen?
When receiving advice, it’s essential to understand where someone is coming from, especially when it comes to self-love. In short, Kasper van der Meulen is a breathwork biohacker, which means he uses his breath and other natural methods to enhance his physical and mental health. His journey from an unhealthy and unhappy existence to discovering his potential and dedicating his company to assisting others in doing the same has been remarkable. Still, he is convinced we all hold that potential.
In Episode 2 of our podcast, Microdosing Table Talk, we spoke with Kasper van der Meulen to learn more about his personal experience. He talks about the benefits of breathwork, microdosing, and other self-development practices, and how they can aid us on our journey to healing and reaching our potential.
When we start with a self-love mentality, we can substantially boost the beneficial influence our microdosing journey (and other practices) can have on our lives. As a result, we were compelled to share Kasper van der Meulen’s insightful post about self-love. Below are his original thoughts on self-love.
Replacing self-hate with self-love
“It’s such an easy tip to give…Such an “enlightened” way to disregard somebody’s personal journey and issues. “Just love yourself” has been said to me by well-meaning people in my hardest phases of life. [The] thing is: they were right. I needed to learn to love myself, but most people giving this advice don’t bother adding HOW TO do it. It’s one of those concepts that we can easily cognitively grasp, but can be difficult to really live.
I don’t think I have a final answer that I can fit into one post. But I do know this: Self-love is a skill. And so is self-hate. It just so happens that most of us have learned the habits of self-hate very early in life, and have practised that skill for decades. Self-hate is disguised in all kinds of socially accepted and positive-sounding terms like “just work a little harder”, “work on yourself to be better”, “have more discipline”, “work to reach your goals”. The self-improvement industry is drenched in these self-hate triggers. If we would truly love ourselves, and we would lack nothing, would there still be a need for self-improvement?
Simple ways to practice self-love
When we hit a low point in life, getting the advice of “just love yourself” is like being super out of shape and someone saying “just go run a marathon”. It’s a matter of practice and it starts super small. Here [are] some less romantic but more real ways to practice self-love:
- Saying NO to something that doesn’t serve you
- Taking an evening to care for yourself
- Asking for help
- Having a difficult conversation with a family member or friend [who] puts you down
- Doing something because you simply enjoy it — not to be productive or successful
- Forgiving yourself for making mistakes
- Being compassionate to yourself when you feel down
- Allowing yourself to feel sad when you feel sad
- Creating for the sake of creating — dancing, singing, drawing, writing
See it’s not about loving yourself as a definite state that you can bliss out on, it’s about a day-to-day dedication to living a more whole and fulfilled life.
Let’s start a wave of self-love! Share this post with someone you care about who might benefit from a regular dose of self-love.
