The Joy of Forgiving Yourself

A reminder from my good friend Dan to be gentle and patient with ourselves. We are not as awful, bad at something, or stupid as our self talk sometimes tells us. The first of the Four Agreements tell us to be impeccable with our word. I realized one day that doesn't just mean how we talk to and interact with others. It also means how we talk to and interact with ourselves. That struck me like a thunderbolt. Such a simple notion had escaped me all this time! The conversations and relationship we have with ourselves sets the tone for our entire outlook. Once I understood that and started being more aware of own self talk I realized how downright cruel I was being to me. We sometimes talk to ourselves in ways we wouldn't talk to others or ever allow others to talk to us. So be sure to move through the day with a gentle and loving spirit. Give yourself the break you would give others and expect others to give you. Namaste.

Our Inner Voice

Sometimes our inner voice speaks to us with such cruelty and debilitating criticism. We are our own worst critic. We are pointed out to ourselves all the flaws, real and imagined, that no one else would ever notice. We are relentless in our critical and painful self talk. We speak to ourselves in ways we would never allow others to speak to us. When we become more aware of this, however, we have an opportunity. An opportunity to change the inner dialog. To be our own biggest fan instead of our own harshest judge.