Forgive Yourself
When I awoke this morning, these two words came to mind. It was a bit "out-of-nowhere" although I must admit that I'd recently been mulling over a few things in my mind and realised that I wasn't going to get the best out of me until I was less hard on myself.
No-one is perfect, that's true. So why do we sometimes expect so much from ourselves? And when we don't live up to the ideal - whatever that is at any given time - why so hard on ourselves? We wouldn't be so harsh on someone else, would we? I suspect we'd be more supportive and understanding.
So I thought about what forgiveness really means to me and I came up with a few thoughts.
Forgiveness is about drawing a line under something and letting it go. Not dwelling on something that's in the past. Not allowing something that's done, or out of our control, to define who we are. It's a release mechanism. We make a conscious decision to let go.
The other thing is that when we forgive ourselves, we simply recognise and accept that we could have done things differently and, probably, better than we did. But so what? We're back to the "no-one is perfect" thing, right?
Life starts NOW, as it's often been said. No matter what/where/who you've been, you can only influence things from THIS point in time. To seek to improve the future you may otherwise experience.
So I'm going to cut myself a little slack and forgive myself the things I think I've not handled as well as I could have. Rather than think about the "what ifs?" and the "why the heck did I do that?", type of questioning.
In order to become the person I REALLY want to be, I must decide to start making small changes (a step at a time is key, gaining small wins hat quickly accumulate) and it'll be achieved. And although it's currently only a deep-down feeling that I know I can succeed - with practice, I also know that the "deep-down" will reach the surface and become the new me I need in my life!
So here's to me! And here's to EVERYONE who is looking for self improvement. Start by forgiving yourself!!
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4 年Beautiful Alan, and very important. Thanks for the nudge to be kinder to my self-critical self!
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4 年Im often hard on myself too, especially if I don't feel great physically or I've had a lazy couple of days. Often find my mind is in a much better place for personal forgiveness after exercise, even if it's just a 60min really fast walk with the dog.?
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4 年Enjoyed this little reminder of not being hard on yourself. It’s sometimes hard not to do. Great article.?
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4 年I’ll drink to that! Cheers ??
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4 年I agree. Forgive yourself, learn from your mistakes, move on!