Self-Acceptance Day 3
Good Morning. This quote by fashion designer, Diane Von Furstenberg, is simple but true. It illustrates a few things. First, that you cannot run away from yourself. You can try to avoid or escape your thoughts or vulnerabilities, but they are part of you. The way to overcome them is to work with them rather than avoid them. The second thing I take from this quote is that it’s ok to enjoy life. Life is not all fun…true, but there is lots of enjoyment to be had if we engage fully. If being alone with yourself is comfortable and easy, like being with a good friend, isn’t that preferable to being with a mean coach who humiliates and berates you?
So today’s practice focuses on cultivating a sense of ease with yourself by being with yourself nonjudgmentally. You can do this practice formally by sitting and breathing, or you may just want to take a walk while breathing and thinking. The task is to simply be with yourself, your thoughts and your observations without judging them or yourself. There is literally no way to do the practice wrong. If you notice a negative or self-deprecating thought—observe it and move on. Try to have a sense of curiosity and humor about everything. Do we really think we should be PERFECT?? Try to find something about yourself that you like or just something that you like to do and do it. Focus on it. Just be with yourself for about 20 minutes.
The more you do this, the more comfortable you will be with yourself. You may find that you feel strange or you feel like you are bored or do not know what to do at first. You may have thoughts about how interesting other people are but not you. Anything that comes up is fine…just remember the task is to develop an easy sense with yourself. Everyone is human. Everyone is different. The world is very big and there is room for whoever you are.
Have a great day!
Michele
