GRACE
Do you ever feel like it’s so easy to bestow grace upon everyone else but yourself?
A friend forgets to reply to a text or call. “No big deal, we’ve done that before or perhaps all the time,” we say. Our child breaks a dropped plate. “It’s ok. We all make mistakes.”
Or perhaps the circumstance is of a greater degree. Someone we love and care about feels as if they’ve failed, are less than or are simply just overwhelmed by life.
What do we say to these precious people we hold dear to our hearts? Do we encourage them, give them hope, love on them or tear them down? I believe most would reply that our hearts lean to encouraging and offering hope and love in these often dark and trying seasons.
We offer words of HOPE, LIFE and LOVE.
We are acutely aware that our words matter! What we speak to them and over them matters.
These sensitive, fragile hearts need our carefully crafted words to be a healing balm in their darkest moments.
So isn’t it ironic then that in these similar dark and trying seasons we ourselves may journey through, we often do just the opposite? Why do we find ourselves stepping into the negative versus trying on the positive when it pertains to our own lives.
Take a moment to pause.
What and how do you speak to yourself? Is it life-giving or life-leaching? What if we spoke to ourselves as we would a dear friend and/or loved one?
How would your THOUGHTS, PERSPECTIVE and WORDS CHANGE?
Are you offering yourself grace as you would to a loved one?
Try it out. In knowing every intimate detail of struggle and difficulty you may be navigating in this very moment, write yourself a compassionate, empathetic letter, as if you were writing to a loved one. Practice grace.
Remember the thoughts you have regarding yourself eventually become the words you speak over your mind, body and soul, time and time again. Those words create your belief in who you are in this world. Every action we take or don’t take mirrors those beliefs. This is dire because it impacts every area of your life.
Maybe you’ve heard this before":
“How you do one thing is how you do everything.”
Well your belief about yourself doesn’t simply impact one layer of your life. This belief will impact EVERYTHING. How you show up as a son or daughter, parent, spouse, friend, human and beyond. And in terms of trying to up-level your wellness, it’s difficult to make long lasting transformations when we haven’t first dealt with our beliefs about self.
So where do we begin and how do we change these spiraling beliefs?
I wish there were an instantaneous solution but as they say, all good things take time. Your current beliefs took time and cultivating, whether good or bad. Your new beliefs will also take time, cultivating and great intention. It can be so easy to slip back into “bad habits” so be alert. Practice thinking and speaking life over yourself!
Bite that tongue when you notice harmful words spewing. Nurture your body, mind and soul as you would a loved one and begin to watch your own self feel and act loved and nourished from the inside, out!
Do you catch yourself saying words or phrases like, “I eat like crap all the time”, “ Being overweight is in my DNA”, “I’m a HOT MESS”, “WORKING OUT does nothing for me”, “I can’t eat healthy, it’s too hard.” “We’re ALWAYS sick.”
Sadly that’s just the beginning, right? Insert your own words, but I think you get my drift. Our body believes what our mind speaks so be very careful! What you speak matters on a deep, cellular level. Our actions will confirm what we’ve spoken into existence. So take one positive step that proves the new belief you’re creating. Baby steps or micro movements, as I like to say.
You will always need to be intentional regarding this because this negative self-talk can rear its ugly head when least expected. And how did I grow to understand this concept so deeply? Well I lived it deeply and must always be on guard to slay thoughts that begin to take root. Instead I speak life because the damaging effects of the alternative left me depleted in far too many areas to count for far too long than I dare to remember.
SPEAK LIFE and WATCH YOURSELF TRANSFORM into the YOU, you once thought and believed wasn’t possible!
