be a friend to yourself

Why is it that we forgive so easily other peoples mistakes or blunders yet it is so hard to shake our own? We often worry that we are being judged by others, and that our own mistakes would be unforgivable in other peoples eyes. If we pay enough attention to our internal dialogs we would notice how much we are in our own heads, and that means almost all of us, judging and beating ourselves up for things we have or have not done. So consider this, if all of us are spending so much time in our heads, we really aren't paying much attention to those around us and other peoples imperfections because we are so busy judging our own. In a crazy way it means no one is really judging us but ourselves, and we are always our worst critic. Analyzing what we should, could, and didn't do, yet no one else is really paying attention because they are all too busy abusing themselves too.

So, I invite you to start noticing what is the soundtrack in your head. Pay attention when you start beating yourself up, and ask yourself, if this was your best friend, who could, should or didn't do whatever, would you judge them so harshly? In fact, would you even care? Could you forgive them for this atrocity of being human and making mistakes and love them anyways, imperfections and all? The truth is, if we treated others the way we treated ourselves, we would be alone. Get that? Totally alone.

Be nice to yourself. You are a good person and deserve to be forgiven too. Imperfections and all, welcome to the human race.