Whew! We made it through this challenge. I hope you feel like you’ve learned a lot about self-love and learning to manage your inner naysayer. It’s definitely a process. Now that you understand these components of loving yourself, you can break down that process and begin to embrace the idea of loving yourself. Let’s take a quick walk down memory lane and browse through all the different topics we covered over the past 28 days. Here’s a quick rundown:
What has had the biggest impact on you? What tips and ideas have you found the most helpful? Those are the posts that you want to come back to again and again. Take a few minutes today to reflect on not only how far you’ve come, but more importantly how this simple 28-day challenge has influenced you and changed you for the better. What positive experiences have you had as a result of learning to love yourself and silence your inner naysayer? Now that you can see how far you’ve come in just a short time, I hope you’re ready to continue the journey to self-love on your own. Thank you so much for joining me on this challenge. Please don’t hesitate to reach out with questions or to share your progress.
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In this series, we’ve been focusing on self-love and its importance. You now understand the ways in which loving yourself can dramatically improve your life. You’ve learned ways to silence your inner naysayer and to embrace self-love. In today’s post, I want to focus on one of the most important components of self-love, and that’s forgiving yourself. Self-love starts with self-forgiveness. Forgiving yourself is a process that requires a great deal of introspection.
Fortunately, you’ve already done a great deal of the work throughout this challenge. You’ve worked to learn to recognize and manage your inner critic. You’ve focused on self-awareness and confidence. You understand that having a sense of purpose is important to cultivating love for yourself. These lessons and so many more have helped to prepare you for the challenge of learning self-forgiveness. Read on to discover what it truly means to forgive yourself, why it matters, and how to make it happen. About Self-Forgiveness Forgiveness is a concept that is difficult. Letting go of anger, hurt, and resentment caused by others can take years. It’s often even harder to forgive yourself, but it’s also necessary. Self-forgiveness involves recognizing past actions that may have been harmful and accepting responsibility for them. It also requires moving on and getting past the negative emotions that can come with regret. Letting go is a requirement of self-forgiveness. Why It’s Important Self-forgiveness and moving on is a requirement for healing. You can’t begin to feel better and to live in healthy ways if you’re stuck in negative emotions surrounding past events. You deserve forgiveness as much as anyone else – in fact, even more so. You know your true nature and your motivations. You understand the reasons for your errors, and you understand how hard you’re working to improve yourself. Forgiving yourself lets you know you’re worthy of great things. It’s freeing. You can go on to do better and be better once you’ve truly forgiven yourself for your past. You need to forgive yourself before you can fully love yourself. How to Forgive Yourself You can begin to forgive yourself by showing yourself the same compassion you would show others. Forgiving yourself doesn’t mean that what you did was okay. It simply requires you to understand that you’re a different person now, that you’ve learned, and that you’re ready to do better. Allow yourself the compassion and the grace to do that. Also, go easy on yourself. Understand that self-forgiveness won’t happen overnight. It’s a process that takes time. Recognize the work that you’re doing to improve. This can go a long way toward helping you to forgive. Self-forgiveness is a major part of loving yourself. Hopefully, you now understand just what that means, why it matters, and how to work toward making it happen. Once you begin to forgive yourself, you’ll find that love comes more easily. Being vulnerable is difficult. It is not weakness. It’s allowing yourself to be open, to be yourself, to accept help. It’s showing the world who you are with the understanding that not everyone will like or accept that person, but you show up anyway. Vulnerability is showing your soft side and admitting that you don’t have it all together. Society rewards stoicism, being strong and getting by on your own. It can be tough to let your guard down, but there are lots of advantages to it. Let’s look at the power of letting yourself be vulnerable. Sense of Belonging When you’re unabashedly yourself, you’ll find that you attract your tribe. The people in your life will want to be there because they see the real you. You won't be attracting people only interested in the parts you’re willing to show them. Being truly vulnerable means showing the world your authentic self, flaws and all. As you begin to open up more, you’ll notice that the people around you feel natural. It’s easy to be vulnerable around them because they accept you for who you are. This can lead to a real sense of belonging. You can build community around like-minded folks. Earned Trust People can spot a faker. If you’re being inauthentic, aka fake, people will know. This is especially true in situations where you are a leader or boss. Being vulnerable shows others that you are not perfect and it encourages them to be open too. Your vulnerability lets them know they don’t have to be perfect around you and that you will understand. They’re more willing to come to you with problems. All of this is because they trust you. It’s easier to trust someone who shows their flaws and who admits that they don’t have all the answers. Improved Relationships Your relationships will improve when you’re able to be vulnerable with the people who are important to you. That’s because people appreciate vulnerability. When you can share your emotions with people you care about and let them see your flaws, they are able to do the same. You get to know each other better and will feel closer. Demonstrating vulnerability invites you and others to do so more often, allowing for even deeper relationships to form. There is a lot to be gained from vulnerability. Are you surprised? There truly is power in letting yourself be vulnerable. You’ll improve your relationships and, in the end, begin to accept yourself and all your flaws. |
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