Saturday, April 30, 2011
Unit 6: Meditation and Mindfulness
This exercise was my reality check. I had to face the music about myself and be honest with my assessment because I really want to change and see some positive improvements in my life as a WHOLE. I discovered that I was not in love with myself. As I ponder this question further, I am made aware of how I bend over backwards to serve and help others reach their goals of self help, I am neglecting myself in that same area. I discovered that I constantly feel undeserving or unworthy of the nice things people say or do for me. Specific exercise (s) or activities I can implement to foster greater awareness in this area would be to implement both subtle mind and loving kindness practices daily to help me intentionally change my thought about myself. I should also pamper and reward myself often and not leave my self worth up to others. Does anyone else have other suggestions for me?
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Hey Deborah,
ReplyDeleteI am glad that you had that recognition for your self-love as I know how important that is. I struggled with my self-love for a long time and truly believe that God helped me to understand better why I could really love myself through His Word. The ultimate foundation to my inner healing came with understanding how valuable and special I was to GOD, so therefore, how could I have issues with myself if God, the Creator of the Universe, found me without flaw (Songs 4:7), worth more than rubies (Proverb 31:10) and more valuable than all the lilies of the field (Matthew 6:26). Understanding God's perspective really helped me to re-evaluate my own self-perception and identify the unhealthy expectations I had over myself which had been placed their by a selfish and misguided world culture that does not do much to encourage people to love themselves or be content with what they have. All this to say, I am glad for you that you have started on the journey of loving yourself. I encourage you to continue to analyze the roots of what brings to do not love yourself and assess this against truth. Remember, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Men in other countries find women with hairy armpits/legs, extremely long necks (via circles added to lengthen the spine), and big holes in the ears added over more and more time, to be beautiful. There is no "right" way to look. =0)
Good Morning Deborah,
ReplyDeleteWhat a great post! Like youself, I found my happiness to be in the hands of others as well. Growing up I felt that if I do everything that people asked of me I would be in their good graces and I would never have to hear a complaint from them. However, as I got older more and more was expected from me and at times it became overbearing. I lost my own happiness in making others happy. It has taken me as an adult to learn that my happiness and self love determines my own self-worth not what others think or believe of me. I am in a much better place and am a better person because of it. I do have to breath when I face adversity, however, breathing has become my refuge and when I deal with things out of my control I always take a deep breath and start from the begining. I had to learn that life is whats going on while I am making plans for the next move. Always remember, one day at a time, change will eventually come. Will you be ready?
Ann
Deborah:
ReplyDeleteI am so happy that you found out what you need to do. Sometimes in life we forget about our self and do for others which isn't bad that you are doing for others, but you must love your self first, work on what you need to fix within your self before you can help others. I think you are on the right path to integral health because you have assess and realized what needs to be worked on.
Jade
Jade thanks for your encouragement!
ReplyDeleteJulie, your post had me in tears. I had to read it a couple of times to feel the essence of truth you wrote. Thanks for your feed back. Seeing myself the way God sees me is an excellent, daily exercise for me to help with my self-worth. I agree with you that it important to determine the root cause of these feelings. I think journaling on a regular basis and maybe sharing my feelings with someone who is unbiased can help me identify the reason (s) for my negative views of myself. Julie I sincerely appreciate your feed back, as it was enlightening.
ReplyDeleteHi Ann, your response was helpful as well. I can personally identify with all of what you mentioned in your post. I do visualize myself and being strong, confident, and assertive. Learning the fundamentals of these practices are so important, I feel it will help me spend more time with myself and develop love for myself. I really appreciate your feedback.
ReplyDeleteDeborah,
ReplyDeleteI, too, realized that I do not love myself enough. What a challenging place to be. I am trying to devote some time everyday to focus only on my positive characteristics, and trying to cut down on the negative criticism. It think it relates to Dacher's description of how to find purpose in your work, even when you don't necessarily like it. It's not easy at first, but if you try a little bit every day, it will start to get a little easier. Keep at it, and I hope you can continue to exercise self-love. You deserve it!