Do you ever stop to notice how you talk to yourself when you make a mistake? With ease we slide into our inner critic and oftentimes kick up thoughts of “I can never get it right. I’m always a failure. I will never be good enough.” Follow me for a second. What would life look like, if in that moment, you could catch that thought? What would it feel like to pivot and talk to yourself as your best friend would talk to you? The inner voice could shift to “stuff happens” or “I have great brains in my head, I will figure this one out.”
Remember that little writeup I did about living a life practicing daily gratitude? Well, let’s circle back to that. When we slow down and practice gratitude for what surrounds us, it also allows us space to notice ourselves. We can take stock in how we have been treating ourselves with everything from food and movement, to self-talk and down time. It’s the mundane every day moments we can take advantage of that oftentimes slip through our fingers. Even in the smallest of life’s routine moments we still have choices. Every time we do that with intention, we give ourselves a little space of kindness.
When we take time to have intention in our lives, we can work on creating a safe space within ourselves. This is our sacred place of thoughts, creativity, resilience, and love! We have to start looking at caring for ourselves in the same way we look at caring for our family, friends, pets and yes…houseplants! For instance, instead of beating yourself up over going to the grocery store during the busiest of hours, take time to notice the happy baby behind you in line or how beautiful your strawberries are. Take a moment to be grateful that you have the means(maybe even a pat on the back for how hard you have worked this week) to be at a grocery store buying those beautiful strawberries.
Slow down. Practice gratitude. Challenge your inner critic.