Today my plan was to use the Radical Self Acceptance process on the quality of introversion.
I often blame my introversion for holding me back from “greatness.” If I were only more outgoing and more motivated to “get out there” I would have been more successful, sooner.
Just as I began the process, an image popped into my mind that made me realize there was a bigger issue.
Filed under Radical Self Forgiveness, Uncategorized
Up until pretty recently, the idea of loving or even accepting myself “as is” has been something I just couldn’t “grok.”
I grew up on the idea of “self-improvement.” That I was flawed. My flaws, by definition were fundamentally unacceptable, and my life’s work was changing all of those unacceptable elements into things I would like. So personal happiness and fulfillment is all about changing what I don’t like into what I do like so that I become a person I can like.
This all seems to make sense.
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Filed under Radical Self Forgiveness, Uncategorized
I haven’t been actively doing a lot of forgiveness exercises because I’ve been reading more about self-forgiveness, specifically, about all the “selves” that fall into “self.”
I often hear people talking about having different parts of themselves. Most commonly people talk about their “inner critic” and “giving myself a hard time.” Sometimes someone will also say, “I’m the one getting in my way.”
These are good examples of those other parts of ourselves.
What I’ve discovered so far is:
This is encouraging.
Tomorrow I’m going to be reading about my “shadow” self and my “sabotage” self. I’m really curious and kind of excited to learn about these because these are parts of me that have kicked my ass in the past. I’m excited about the possibility of “diffusing” these selves. Not getting rid of. These are parts of me that have served a purpose in the past. It would be like saying, “I want to cut off my nose.”
But I would like to be able to say, “Thank you for doing what you did because you were wanting to protect me. I’m not going to need you anymore, you can go now.” More like, leaving these selves behind me as we leave old beliefs and habits behind that no longer serve us.
I really can’t wait to learn more!
Filed under Radical Forgiveness
