How you love yourself is how you teach others to love you.

-Rupi Kaur

It’s that time of year again—when we gather together with family and friends to celebrate, reminisce, and enjoy egg nog and mulled wine. It sounds pretty romantic, and sometimes it is, but sometimes it definitely isn’t.

Sometimes we can be overwhelmed by competing needs and struggle with our boundaries being threatened. We can revert to that child we worked so hard to heal and allow the inner critic to creep into our thoughts.

This is when some self-love and self-compassion are called for. How can we expect others to honor and respect us if we don’t honor and respect ourselves? It’s up to us to teach others how to treat us, how to love us, how to honor and support and nurture us—by honoring and supporting and nurturing ourselves.

So take some time every day—and especially at this time of year—to honor and nurture and care for yourself. Show others how valuable you are by valuing yourself.