Loving Yourself with the Emotional Bank Account

Loving yourself is so important for your overall well-being.

If you want to learn how to love yourself more, the Emotional Bank Account is a great tool to help you on your journey. The Emotional Bank Account is a way of thinking about self-love that can help you understand what types of ‘deposits’ and ‘withdrawals’ are significant for you. With this knowledge, you can learn how to love yourself more and get more of what feels good into your life. 

Self-love may seem like a new-agey, touchy-feely concept but it is actually one of the most important foundations for a healthy and fulfilling life.

Loving yourself isn’t about being selfish or egocentric, it’s about understanding that you are the only person who can meet your needs and wants. Once you realize this, you can start to take care of yourself in the way that you deserve.

Think about the Emotional Bank Account concept. Just like a financial bank account, you need to make deposits in order to make up for withdrawals. If your “emotional bank account” is empty, you will have a hard time giving to others, or even worse, you can become burnt out or enter a state of adrenal fatigue.

The idea for the Emotional Bank Account came from Stephen Covey, in his book the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.

Stephen has passed on, but here is a link to his facebook page.

In his original idea, the emotional bank account was a tool to look at our relationships with others. I think it applies just as effectively to use with ourselves as individuals.

Taking the time to fill up your emotional bank account will give you to capacity to be who it is you want to be in the world.

Here are some ways to make deposits into your emotional bank account:

- Spend time alone doing things that make you happy

- Say no to things that don’t serve you

- Forgive yourself for your mistakes

- Set boundaries with others

- Invest in your relationships

Laying the groundwork of self-love is an essential step to living a happy and fulfilled life. By taking care of yourself first, you will be able to show up for others in a much more meaningful way. Which ones will you try to make some deposits today?

If you’re not sure what makes you happy, I suggest you check out Gary Chapman’s 5 Love Languages.

When it comes to our personal development journeys, it's important that we learn how to love ourselves.

This means being our own channel for love, not relying on others to make us feel good about ourselves. We need to learn how to fill our own emotional bank accounts, so we can feel happy and fulfilled in our lives. This isn't always easy, but it's so worth it.

When we love ourselves, we can attract more love into our lives and feel happier overall.

Remember, Loving yourself is the first and most important step on the journey to personal development. When you love yourself, you're more open to growth and change. Making deposits into your emotional bank account helps you feel loved and appreciated and sets you up for success in other areas of personal development. Consider your relationships, personal or professional - where do you struggle to show up differently? How much safer would you feel to try something new if you already had a healthy emotional bank account?

By having a full bank account, it’s safer to take risks. (You can lose a few coins and not worry)

Because I love myself and keep a pretty healthy emotional level - I am a person who can be vulnerable more easily than others. At the end of the day, even if I have some tough losses or withdrawals - I’ve got some savings to fall back on. I’ve invested in my own well-being so much so that I can afford to risk losing some of the time. 

But how do you do it?

If you're not used to thinking about self-care, it can be helpful to journal or take note of your emotional bank account each day. This will help you become more aware of your needs and how to best meet them. Prioritizing making deposits into your emotional bank account is a key part of self-care and personal development. By doing things you enjoy, investing in your relationships, and trying new things, you're telling yourself that you're worth the effort. Experiment and find what works best for you – there's no wrong way to love yourself!

To learn about the ways in which I manage my personal Emotional Bank Account and the resources that have helped me tune into this week's Living Out Love Episode: Loving Yourself with An Emotional Bank Account.