Self-love in 2025 can mean a lot of things depending on who you ask. The answer is often complex, expensive, requires hours of commitment, and is only accessible to an elite and privileged few. But that’s not what authentic, deep, and impactful self-love is. It doesn’t have to (and shouldn’t be) any of those things. The true meaning has been lost in all the noise, especially in the wellness world.  

From a whole body, holistic perspective, the way in which you can love yourself first is by building a meaningful wellness routine that is sustainable, practical, and realistic to your individual lifestyle.   

Practicing self-love is just that – a practice. They are consistent choices made regularly and often that support your mental, emotional, and physical health.  

Botanica’s 5 Spheres of Health are the perfect jumping off points to begin creating an intentional wellness routine. So, let’s chat about some core foundational, evidence-based self-care tips that will help you build a little more self-love into your daily rituals.  

Supplements 

Supplements are there for you to fill gaps in your diet and provide extra support when needed. The supplements you take daily should be intentional, individual, safe, and high quality.  

Take an inventory of what you really need in addition to a nourishing diet instead of filling your cart with unnecessary, potentially harmful, and often expensive supplements. Aim to take products that have multiple effects on the body and are tough to get via diet alone, like Botanica’s Vitamin D Liquid Capsules. You’ll get more bang for your buck.  

Nutrition 

One of the most radical acts of self-love is nourishing yourself daily with the foods that allow your brain and body to thrive. Amidst all the confusion and conflicting information available to us, it’s become incredibly challenging to navigate how to feed ourselves.  

From the lens of authentic self-care, how we eat should be void of deprivation, judgment, expectation, and perfectionism — and instead focus on supporting our individual body systems, providing the necessary nourishment for everything to operate optimally. Eating well isn’t about perfection. It’s about micro choices that lead to macro results. That’s self-love.  

The healthiest and most powerful lifestyle-based diets are those that focus on consuming a lot of plants, quality protein, and anti-inflammatory fats. 

Prioritizing plant-based foods 

Plant-based foods like dark leafy greens and brightly coloured fruits and vegetables should be the cornerstone of your diet and ideally featured in every meal. The more colour, the more life, the better.  

One way to get an incredible dose of greens in your diet is Botanica’s Perfect Greens Powders — they’re whole plant based, free of any artificial ingredients, and come in 4 flavour options. The best part? They are GREENS only, so you know you’re getting the best dose of greens, without anything else getting in the way.  

Consuming quality protein and healthy fats 

Protein is key. It’s the building block of everything that our mind and body can do. Ideally, we are aiming for 1g of protein for every pound of ideal body weight — that’s A LOT and can be hard to achieve with food alone. Your best bet? Opting for Botanica’s Perfect Protein Powders. They’re packed with 20g of vegan protein in every serving, are soy and legume-free, and you have Elevated options to target some specific health goals.  

Finally, we have anti-inflammatory fats, essential for nourishing the cell membranes of our brain cells, our hormones, and on and on. Focusing your consumption on mono and polyunsaturated fats like omega-3s (e.g. fish, walnuts, flax, algae) and omega-9s (e.g. avocados, olives, olive oil) will build you the strongest foundation.  

Lifestyle 

Living with intention, and with the intention of practicing self-love, is a lifestyle. It’s not a one-weekend crash course in wellness, or a fancy retreat or vacation. Those can be part of your practice, but loving yourself first is a way of being, a way of life. The consistent choices you make in your day-to-day routine will result in a lifestyle that you have curated for yourself, to care for yourself.  

Along with supporting your body with quality supplements and nourishing food, prioritizing things like movement and sleep are key.  

The ability to move our bodies daily is a privilege that we often take for granted – yet it’s essential to well-being and feeling positive about yourself. Our bodies are designed to move, and they are designed to move regularly. So, find your favourite form of movement, commit to it and yourself, and feel the love grow.  

Allowing yourself to rest and recover through sleep is the way in which you tell your mind and body that it is safe and being looked after. Without it, your body gets locked in a stress response cycle that becomes very challenging to regulate. Aim for 7-8 hours of quality sleep per night, ideally going to bed by 11pm and waking by 8am to optimize your circadian rhythm.  

Mental Wellness 

Supporting your mental wellness and knowing what you need for support is pivotal in a self-care routine. Self-awareness and mindfulness are daily practices. It’s a journey, not a destination.  

Whether that be through affirmations of self-worth, meditation, breathwork, movement, social connection, stress management and so on – getting in touch with your inner self is uncomfortable and challenging, yet incredibly transformational. Approach your mental wellness without judgment, but rather with mindful self-compassion. Feeling the ebbs and flows is normal and healthy – it’s how you respond that matters.  

Community and Connection 

Building meaningful connections to your environment and those around you is one of the most powerful tools of self-love. Feeling like you belong to a place, or a people fosters positive self-worth and purpose. Stay connected to friends and family, even when life gets busy. Send a text, make a phone call, write an email, or get together in real life – it’s worth the effort. Consider finding something that interests you or a cause you’d like to get involved in where you’ll find like-minded people with similar interests.  

In honour of Valentine’s Day, consider approaching self-love and self-care from a truly holistic and sustainable perspective. Leave some of the fancy assumptions behind, because authentic self-love is accessible to all of us. Practice building a meaningful wellness routine based on these core foundational spheres of health and really take care.