Monday, August 31, 2015

Forgive Yourself



I've always been toughest on myself, a bit of a perfectionist and afraid of making mistakes. I guess this type of thinking has caused me to focus on forgiving others, but never choosing to forgive myself. In the the past I never actually thought that I needed to forgive myself, it wasn't a thought. But when I couldn't figure out why it was so hard for me to forgive a specific person and resentment continued to grow against this person, I realized it was so hard for me to forgive them because I actually needed to forgive myself. I needed to forgive myself for allowing someone to take advantage of me, for tolerating disrespect, and for accepting bad behavior.  I was upset with myself for making decisions over and over again that did nothing but hurt me in the end. I felt shame and guilt about my past decisions. I felt stupid and angry for continuing to make mistakes that I should have learned from. Instead of forgiving myself and using my mistakes as a testimony to help others, I was condemning myself.  When I chose to finally forgive myself, I could then forgive others.

Saturday, August 29, 2015

Be Patient


I tend to want a quick fix. Snap of the finger and everything is magically perfect and all is right with the world, or at least I want it to be all right in my world. Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way. After too many years of bad habits and learned negative thoughts, it takes patience and daily work on my part to get to the place where I want to be. I now realize it can't happen overnight just because I read a book, or I say some affirmations. It is going to be a daily process to  replace those negative thoughts and create good habits.  So, no quick fix here...just hard work and determination.