Until you make peace with who you are, you will never be content with what you have. ~Doris Mortman
I don’t know about you but I think maybe one of the hardest things in life is to learn to love yourself and be at peace with who you are? Yet how true is this quote – how can we ever be satisfied with material things if we don’t have inner peace?
Self-awareness is hard work and often when we are honest with ourselves about our thoughts and reactions to situations it can be pretty cringe-worthy.
We all have secret parts of ourselves that we want to hide from those around us because we think we’ll be unlovable if we don’t, but it’s so important for us not to hide from those things ourselves.
The only way to really grow and to mature emotionally as well as physically is to bring those shadow parts of ourselves into the light of our introspection, to explore the bits we don’t like so that we can work on changing them. It’s not about dwelling on them, judging yourself and sinking into a sad or even depressed state. It’s about owning them, learning from them and letting go of them so that you can move forward in a different, more positive, way in future.
Then there’s also the parts of you that you need to learn to accept. The part that means you recognise that you can’t please all of the people all of the time; the part that learns to say no in order to protect your own integrity, principles and health without ever deliberately hurting anyone else. You might annoy them for a little while by refusing a request, but you haven’t hurt them emotionally or physically by doing so and you have protected your own health and self-worth by being assertive in that situation. Learn to explore, recognise and embrace the parts of you that make you unique. Change the things that you don’t like about yourself, one step at a time. When you bring different parts of yourself into the light of introspection ask yourself, is this how I want other people to see me? If not, what do I need to change in order to become more like the person I want others to see?
As chaplains part of our role is to help you find ways of nourishing yourself, giving yourself time to explore what will help you to feel positive and hopeful in life. We are that listening ear that you can bounce thoughts, hopes or concerns onto. We can also sign-post you to organisations that provide extra support in a range of situations. We’re here most Monday and Wednesday lunchtimes to listen whatever you would like to talk about and if you just want to break up your day with a light-hearted conversation that’s great too. Have a blessed week.
If you don’t manage to catch up with a chaplain on site, as always you can contact us via email on info@mitechaplaincy.com where you can request a call-back, or you are very welcome to call me (Debbie) directly on my mobile: 07526 378529 either to chat or to arrange a time to meet up with myself or one of the other chaplains. We also have a range of resources on our web-site including some that are more specific to the Covid-19 outbreak and some that help in dealing with stress: https://mite.org.uk If you prefer you can easily keep in touch with us on social media: Facebook: @mitechaplaincy Twitter: @mitesthwarr
Photo by Nadine Marfurt on Unsplash