You are going to make mistakes. You are sometimes going to do the very thing you said you wouldn’t. You are going to stumble and fall. You are going to be rude to yourself and ask yourself, “Why did I just do that, don’t I know better?” You do know better but, humanity in itself represents the inevitable presence of error. You will make mistakes because perfection, although ideal, is not attainable. Humanness requires fault.

To say that I am my toughest critic, would be an understatement. I am extremely hard on myself because I know that I am capable, intelligent, creative, resilient etc. With all those wits, careless mistakes fall hard on my subconscious mind but now, I try to give myself grace. I am human. I am not bionic. 

Forgiving yourself is not a statement alone, it’s an action. How do you treat yourself when you are disappointed? Are you words kind? Are your actions thoughtful? Are you spending the adequate amount of time healing? Are you on auto-pilot to avoid addressing the matter at hand? Avoidance is a side effect of a lack of forgiveness.

One more time for those in the back.

Avoidance is a side effect of a lack of forgiveness.

Forgive yourself for the relationships that didn’t work, for the jobs that let you go, for the opportunities that you think you squandered, for the diets you didn’t stick to, for the birthday’s you missed, for the things you said out of anger. Forgive yourself!

You deserve to live in the now. You can’t change what you’ve already done so stop looking behind you and look ahead. Your past will always be there but so will your present. What are you going to do with right now? Forgiveness won’t happen over night but over time. A new year is approaching, don’t take the baggage of this one into it with you.

You got this!

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