I attended a yoga class this morning, and I was inspired by the teacher’s theme that we be more generous with ourselves. She wasn’t referring to financial indulgences like lavish vacations or fancy jewelry when she spoke of generosity. I believe that she was reminding us to give ourselves room to breathe. She was suggesting that we allow ourselves room to make mistakes- to fall down and then get back up again. She was nudging us in the direction of gentleness, as I so often remind my students during class (again, we teach what we most need to learn!). I couldn’t even begin to count the number of times I say “Be gentle with yourself” when I am teaching.
Have you heard the phrase “You are your own worst critic!”? So true, right?! This statement alone speaks volumes to how harsh we treat ourselves. I remember when my life coach first taught me about this idea of a “gremlin” on my shoulder- this little creature that I’ve created in my mind who discourages me and holds me back from being my best self. I recognized this gremlin concept immediately, and I am still trying to quiet this little dude down, so I can hear my heart…So I can touch base with my true center, connecting from a place of love, and not turning myself into my own worst enemy.
My special guy points out to me how hard I am with myself all the time- and he’s absolutely right. My signature at the end of these posts is “choose love”, but am I really doing that when I think terrible thoughts about myself? This is a really deep subject, and I know I can only skim the surface in this one post, but I wanted to bring it up because it’s surfacing more in my awareness lately- this message that we all need to hear- that we must be more gentle with ourselves. I definitely include myself in this “we”.
I recently watched a video of Elizabeth Gilbert, the author of the powerful novel Eat, Pray, Love, speaking about this very topic. She speaks about recognizing that she is human and can be harsh with herself, but she is still striving to be kinder to herself. Here’s my favorite quote (probably because I feel like I could have said exactly the same thing):
“The other thing I do every day is…I try to do better. Unfortunately, I am sorry to confess…I am not often kind to myself when I fall short of what it is that I had hoped to do. I can be pretty nasty to myself. My head is a neighborhood that you wouldn’t want to walk in alone at night at certain times when things get very bad…and I am particularly hard on myself when I fail…This is ridiculous…this is a bad life policy.”
So why don’t we adopt a good life policy? How about a kind life policy? Here’s my suggestion: Let’s be generous, gentle, kind, and soft with ourselves. I will continue to try if you will! Are we on the same page? I hope you choose love…
Can you create some empowering, positive statements to substitute for your negative, gremlin thoughts when they arise?
Choose love,
Grace
