How do you talk to yourself?
I had a little improvised Qi Gong foto/video shoot recently with a friend of mine – it was a first for the both of us! It was a lot of fun – after I relaxed somewhat. I’m such a perfectionist and because I teach I want the pictures to be pretty much perfect and my posture to be just right, etc. Also I look at myself with such criticism,
I was surprised how judgemental I can still be towards myself!
Just a few weeks ago I hit a wall concerning social media and posting pictures and videos of myself on Instagram for instance. For many reasons. It was a mix of just being shy to put myself out there, feeling critical and suspicious of social media and fear of loss of control within it, and also my own perfectionism and self-criticism, to name the main points. I had to do quite a bit of soul-searching and focus on what it is that I really want and the advantages posting will give me if I want to build my business online as well.
It was a huge step for me to finally post my first video. But I have to admit it was quite fun to start to learn about the technical side of it, learn how to cut the video, add captions etc..
I’ve decided to take this putting myself out there on social media as another opportunity to release my self-criticism
and become more gentle and loving with myself concerning my appearance and what I think I should look like, sound like, be like. It’s such an old way of treating myself – which I adopted very early in my life. I know this is something many of us are experiencing.
How are you with your self talk?
Are you accepting of yourself or do you put yourself down a lot? Which comes more easily to you? I am much better at loving and accepting myself just the way I am than I used to be, but I obviously still have a bit to go. Which is fine – we’re all right where we need to be!
The first reason to learn to be gentle with ourselves is because we all deserve to be treated this way by ourselves, period.
But I just want to put out there that the more loving and empathetic we are towards ourselves, the more loving and empathetic we can be towards others and the world. Imagine what the world would look like if we all were at peace with ourselves…Okay, huge topic. I’ll stop here for now.
Qi Gong and Stillness are a beautiful way to learn to be more gentle with ourselves. The gentle exercises and learning to just be with ourselves, physically and mentally, bring a quality of gentleness into our lives which can become second nature when practiced regularly or at least called upon instantly when needed. I am so grateful to have these tools with me at all times!
Take care – and be gentle with yourselves!