Simple prompt: “Notice any tendency to ‘be hard on yourself,’ or to feel frustrated or a failure. See this kind of judgment as just another kind of thinking, and gently return awareness to the breath.” ~ The Mindfulist
Searing pain as I look closely (too closely?) at all the ways I’m hard on myself. The prompt doesn’t suggest “too” hard, just “hard”. I appreciate this, because who can say what is too hard?
My writing. My coaching. My learning. My meditating. My blogging. My weight. My body. My toes. My freckles. My kitchen. No wait…there’s nothing wrong with my kitchen….
To be hard on one’s self is to judge one’s self at all. There are shoulds and shouldn’ts. There are could’ves and would’ves and if-onlys. There are why-didn’t-I’s and why-did-I’s. There are he-saids and she-saids and they-saids. And all of those things just don’t matter.
And so I breathe. I breathe in. I breathe out. I notice the natural depth of each breath as it progresses, as it begins to permeate my soul and relax me. I notice the judgments melting away. I notice the what-is. I notice the right-now. I notice the present-being. I notice me.
And then I accept her.
