Maybe you think loving yourself more means working harder and more hours so you can be more successful and make more money. But - actually, the United States seems to program its workers to "group think" they should be working more.
We're known as the "no vacation nation" since we're the only industrialized nation without a minimum annual vacation leave statute. Our ranking among other nations in longevity is dropping. We're twice as likely as Europeans to suffer from anxiety and depression. Maybe we're working too much. Even God took a day off after six working days.
But, you protest, your family could use more money. Maybe they could. But we're talking about you here. And what's best for you. Look at yourself. Do you really need to work more hours - or would your health be affected? Because loving yourself includes loving your body and your emotions. And your family wants and needs YOU.
If you're the woman in the family, statistically you're still doing more of the household chores, even if both you and your husband are working. Can you love yourself more by calmly and reasonably asking him for more help? Today women have as many or more heart attacks as men. To me that says women are not loving themselves well enough. They're trying to do too much. And your family wants and needs YOU.
The more perfectionistic we are, the harder we are on ourselves, the more task-oriented we are, and the more we live with a list of "shoulds" or "coulds" rather than with the reality of what's possible and best for ourselves. We give ourselves and others a totally exhausted and miserable person day after day. That's not self-love. That's being a slave to our own unrealistic demands on ourselves.
How about men and women loving themselves more by giving themselves more time to relax, more time to simply BE with family? I don't mean everybody off in a corner with their latest technological marvel - SmartPhone, etc. I mean WITH - talking, laughing, teasing, sharing, enjoying each other.
How about men and women loving themselves by giving themselves more alone time to just BE - to pray, meditate, exercise, read, enjoy a hobby, sit quietly with the restfulness of Nature. Take time to get to know yourselves better. That's key to loving yourself: knowing your strengths, weaknesses, best and worst thoughts, priorities, limits, gifts, interests - and accepting who you are - because God does.
In fact, God is the best Person to ask about how you could love yourselves better. No one else knows you so well. He asks you to take time with yourself and time with Him: to examine your work, your recreation, your priorities, your relationships, your gifts. He says "Come apart and rest awhile." (Mark 6: 31.)
Take time with God and yourself to relax and get to know who you really are. Love yourself for the totally unique, wondrous person God created you to be. The best gift you can give yourself this New Year is a newly re-energized and self-affirming you.