Years ago, a loving friend said to me,
"If you treated your friends like you treat yourself, you wouldn't
have any friends."
I remember being stunned and shocked
in realization that she was indeed correct.
Somewhere along the line, I had become
cruel and mean to myself. I had become a relentless taskmaster with
no tolerance for anything less than excellence. I had allowed my
inner tyrant to take over my life and I had lost sight of who I
really was.
The irony was that I had a huge
capacity to be kind and loving with everyone else on the planet
except myself. In truth, I would have been ashamed and embarrassed
if anyone discovered how brutal I could be, and was, with myself.
I share this with you because I have
discovered that most of us have an inner voice or two that if we
allow it, can become quite bossy and out of control. Or worse, it
can become amplified and can drive out all of the joy in our lives
and replace it with FEAR (False Evidence Appearing Real). Sadly,
these voices can be very sneaky and manipulative. And who better to
manipulate you than a part of
you? Right?
The good news is that by remembering
who really is in control of your life (and the voices in your head)
you can start to embrace that inner taskmaster, send him/ her love
and transform him/her into an ally. Believe it or not, that inner
tyrant really does love you (after all, it’s a part of you). It has
just gotten a bit out of whack on how it communicates its love to
you. By loving rather than judging that part of you, you allow it
to become integrated and healed so that the power it possesses can
be used for your higher good rather than for self-destruction.
I have found there is freedom in being
able to move from shame to a place of honesty and in turn community
and connection in knowing that we are all in this together. We all
have inner voices that can get us spinning and lost. In naming,
loving, and reclaiming them we can finally be whole--complete and
at peace--not to mention the world becomes a much nicer place both
inside and out.
So, I challenge you this week to look
inside and send love, lots of love, to every part of your being. I
encourage you to send compassion and forgiveness to where there is
judgment and to send joy to where there is rigidity or hardness. I
promise you, you’ll be glad you did.
Have a Compassionate week!
