Wednesday, September 26, 2012

You're Perfect The Way You Are

I am a little pressed for time this morning so I am pulling something from my archives. I wrote this in the past and received a lot of favorable response. Some of you may be reading this for the first time.


Whether we realize it or not, most of us have been told our entire lives that we aren't good enough. Our life has been filled with messages telling us that we are inadequate and imperfect. Most of the messages were unintentional but real never the less. They have been from our parents, our teachers, our spouses or significant others, our children, our relatives, our friends, and our employers. We don't measure up, we disappoint, or we don't meet someone else's standards or expectations. I, too, have heard these messages my entire life. A friend recommended a book to me that I am only now reading. I would have read it sooner but, of course, I am imperfect and lazy so I am just now getting to it. As you can now see we often give ourselves these negative messages too. They don't always come from others. Our biggest critic is often ourselves. Anyway.....the name of the book is Regardless of What You Were Taught to Believe.....There is Nothing Wrong With You by Cheri Huber. It is sub-titled "Going Beyond Self-Hate, A Compassionate Process for Learning to Accept Yourself Exactly as You Are". The book begins with a list of all the messages all of us received in our early childhoods. I was amazed how many I had heard, how many I said to my own children, and how many I have said to my granddaughter who I love more than anything in the world. According to psychologists most of these messages become part of our psyche and are set in concrete before we reach age seven. I know this may all sound terribly negative but it is not meant to be. Consider it an eye opener and a wakeup call stop listening to the voices around you. Today is the day to start loving yourself. Quit trying to improve yourself. Quit thinking you're inadequate. Quit thinking you're imperfect. Quit thinking you’re not smart enough or beautiful enough. You're perfect the way you are.





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