“I deeply love and accept myself.” Say this phrase slowly to yourself right now.
How did that feel? Easy, honest, true? Difficult, uncomfortable, not true?
This kind of work can feel a bit cheesy……..look into the mirror and tell yourself that you love yourself…..I am sure that Saturday Night Live has done some skits on this “new age” kind of loveydoveyselfhealingfeelgoodstuff!
But there is value in this. We can only love and accept others as deeply as we can love and accept ourselves………..warts, age spots, sagging skin and all:)
The deeper we love and accept ourselves, the more compassion we can have for ourselves. The better we will take care of ourselves. The easier it is to not take ourselves so seriously. The easier it is to laugh at our quirks and mistakes. The easier it is to be less critical, defensive and judgemental. And if I am not judging myself so harshly, I will not judge you.
We are not perfect. I find it so ironic when someone says I am a “perfectionist”. Really? How is that possible? How do we even know what “perfect” is??? What we THINK is perfect may not be perfect at all!! It is very exhausting to try to live up to that job description. Do your best? Yes, of course. It feels GOOD to do our best and I think that we are called to do that. But thinking that we have to be perfect to be accepted or loved or good enough is exhausting and really has nothing to do with being loved and accepted.
I deeply love and accept myself. Ok. I can accept THAT part of myself but THAT part???? NO WAY!! Well, can you have compassion, tenderness, kindness for that darker part of yourself? The part that you do not feel is “good enough” in some way?
Any step we can make in the direction of self love and self acceptance is a blessed step. In this love and acceptance comes deeper peace and joy. We don’t have to be so “on” all the time. We don’t have to work SO HARD. We can relax a bit. We can know that we are loveable and acceptable just by being. The more I can relax and just love and accept myself, the more of “me” feels safe to be seen and expressed.
If you can say this statement easily……great! If not, that is ok, also. Meet yourself where you are at. That is where you begin to love and accept yourself……where you are at right now. Maybe you could say, “I would LIKE to love and accept myself.” “Maybe I will be able to love and accept myself someday.” “I wonder what it would look like or feel like if I did love and accept myself?”
Let me know your thoughts and experiences with this exercise. I will be busy looking in the mirror telling myself how much I love and accept myself:) Best to you on this lovely fallish day! Melanie
P.S. watch Jessica loving and accepting herself…..it is precious!!!
Once again, thanks for the great thoughts…So many growing-up messages about love being conditional are branded on our pysches and have to be sent into the deep blue sea. For most of us, it is a lifetime work. Your article helps us challenge it in this moment. For this day.
I deeply love and accept myself. I also deeply love and accept the fact that when I got my deeply-loved and accepted self on the scale this morning, I weighed 1.2 lbs less than I did a week ago! 😉 So you see, on it goes!
yes, it is an every day practice is it not! and then i get one thing accepted and then my body changes and i have something else to love and accept:) Of course, then we move it out into loving and accepting others and what is going on in our world but it all starts with us…….did you not love little jessica in front of her mirror??
I have Katherine, my granddaughter, on my mind today because her 11th birthday is coming up on Monday and I’ve been contemplating what I’d like to write in her birthday card. After reading this, Melanie, I think this message is the one a pre-teen needs to hear, practice and certainly gear up for in the coming years. I’d love to hear what Katherine would say in her mirror and I’d hope she could still express with as much ease as that little girl all that she loves about herself and her life.