Thoughtful Thursday & Curious and Compassionate
Hello friends!
In this week’s podcast episode, I take about the power of curious and compassionate self-awareness.
I share 3 tips to help you as you work on developing this skill.
One of the tips is practicing giving yourself grace. I have a tool I like to use as I work on giving myself more grace. It helps me progress towards growth and change from a place of love and acceptance. There are 3 levels.
Level one begins by stating what I did that I don’t like and then adding and that’s okay.
Let’s use overeating as an example. I could have eaten more than I wanted the day before. Without showing myself grace, I may say something like “I can’t believe I overate yesterday, I am so stupid. I will never lose weight.” My guess is that you have had a thought like this. Know that there is nothing wrong with you. It is normal. Our brain is looking for what is wrong. However, as you work towards inviting more grace into your life, you may say, “I can’t believe I over ate yesterday and that’s okay.” It really is okay. You notice and observe and then accept what is in order to do something different. This is where you can get curious and ask questions. Why did I overeat? What was going on for me? What was I feeling? Knowing that nothing has gone wrong and not beating myself up will help me recalibrate and get back on track to where I want to go.
Level two is stating what I did that I don’t like and then adding “I love me anyway.” “I overate yesterday and I love me anyway.” This is adding love and acceptance. I have said this many times. You can’t hate yourself enough to change. Love is always the answer and the better motivator. “Even though I overate, I still love and accept myself.”
And the third level is to just drop the “anyway.” This may seem like just a little adjustment but it is so powerful. We don’t have to love ourselves despite the things we do that we want to change. Just drop the “anyway.” “I overate and I love myself.” It isn’t one or the other. It isn’t one in spite of the other. “I overate AND I love myself.”
I am lovable. I am worthy and valuable. The end.
I do things I want to change but my love of self is not contingent on whether I make those changes or not. You may be thinking, then what is the point of changing? It is because we can! We were designed to but that does not affect our worth or lovability.
What would your life be like if you could practice more curious and compassionate self-awareness?
The problems and burdens that you have been carrying do not have to be yours alone. My belief is that as we become more self-aware the better able we are to give our burdens to the Lord, enabling us to find solutions and to live life to the fullest. Allowing us to create joyful connections with ourselves and our loved ones.
