Julia Cameron recommends the mantra: “Treating myself like a precious object will make me strong.”
Life has most likely been difficult for you at times, if not entirely. This past year may have been one of your most difficult thus far. Don’t forget to check in with yourself…
Have you been practicing kindness and grace toward yourself? Love and forgiveness breed freedom, and they should absolutely be part of your daily self-care ritual.
One way to incorporate self-love and forgiveness into your daily routine is through your self-talk. Observe the way you “speak” to yourself in the privacy of your mind. Notice how you react when you encounter disappointment, and especially if you happen to feel that the disappointment is somehow your fault. Release the self-blame game and try beginning to replace negative thoughts and commentary in your mind with some form of gratitude or positive acknowledgment. Perhaps when you notice negative self-talk happening, you will call to mind an admirable quality you’re proud to possess or a compliment you recently received. Try thanking yourself for the amount of care and effort you put into the project regardless of the outcome or reception of said work.
Mindful daily use of this process will help you form the habit of practicing love and forgiveness toward yourself. Forgiveness and love take courage to express, and all the more as we extend them to ourselves. The practice of extending love and forgiveness toward ourselves trains us for when we will need to extend them to others, and extending them to others results in lighter burdens for us to carry. Resentment, bitterness and anger are tough, heavy emotions to live beneath; love and forgiveness are freeing. It all begins with the deep work of thanking, cherishing, loving and forgiving yourself.
