I’ve been unsure how to address what was to me an overwhelming response to my last post Eyes on your own paper, y’all!
To you tell you the truth, there were tears. Joyful ones and sad ones because from the emails I got it is so clear to me ladies that there is work to be done when it comes to lifting ourselves up and ending the emotional turmoil in our heads and hearts. We’re capable. Right?
{You, reading this – yes, you. You deserve to like yourself without doing anything different, or achieving anything else, fixing, apologizing, surgically removing, surgically adding, cosmetically repairing, life over-hauling … you’re awesome just the way you are right now you.} [cue Billy Joel]
Life is precious. And short. It can be hard and cruel without us adding to our own suffering. It is also amazing, delightful and easy to miss if we’re busy counting our faults instead of celebrating ourselves just exactly the way we are.
It’s the craziest thing, we think we need to do all this self-improvement stuff to be more satisfied, to be more at ease with ourselves, to own our spot in the world.
But … truly, I think a deep sense of self-worth is the only foundation that can be improved upon. Once you are okay with you the way you are, you can go about tweaking whatever you want more, or less, of in your life. Otherwise, you’re just making cosmetic improvements.
But you can’t pick up a pack of self-esteem at Target. Maybe we had it once and we’ve lost touch with it. Maybe we think it might be too late. Or, perhaps we say “I’ve always been like this. I can’t change.”
Plus, this hamster wheel of life is going pretty fast it might not be safe to stop things the way they are (less than satisfying) in order to change them.
Safe? Or comfortable?
But you’re not a hamster. And you can do uncomfortable things. And as George Eliot said it’s never, ever too late to be what you might have been.
I feel inspired by something beyond myself, my ego, my career aspirations to share my heart’s journey out loud. I think more than anything so many of us are seeking validation that we are normal. Even the darkest parts of our souls need the light of recognition.
I’ve dug pretty deep, and gotten pretty uncomfortable during my self-help odyssey to recalibrate my “normal.” And sharing more of that now, in my self-help journaling series is where I think I’m supposed to go next. If that makes me an emotional exhibitionist, so be it.
I am working on developing the online class but for now, we’ve got this blog and email! Speaking of which, love your comments and emails. Thank you.
p.s. Just so you know I also kick it in the shallow end. How come when Whitney Houston wears those jeans in this video she’s rockin’ them with pride but if I wore them I’d be shoulder-tapped by the Fashion Police for wearing “mom jeans?”
