One of the biggest parts about self-love is forgiving yourself. Forgiving yourself when you feel like you’ve fallen short. Forgiving yourself when you mess up, when you’ve said the wrong thing, when you hurt someone unintentionally. Forgiving yourself when you said too much, or not enough. Forgiving yourself when you ate too much or worked out too much, or not enough.
Why is it so easy to beat ourselves up for that mistake we made? Why is it so easy to feel worthless when we missed one day at the gym? Well, because we put a lot of pressure on ourselves and because society puts a lot of pressure on us. We feel like we can never make a mistake. So when we do, it hurts like hell.
But forgiveness of ourselves means having compassion for ourselves. And having compassion means being kind to ourselves. It means reminding ourselves that we are only human. Sometimes we will lash out at people who mean the most to us. Sometimes we will say or do the wrong things. But that’s okay. Life wouldn’t be interesting if we always had it all together. It’s about acknowledging how you feel about the situation, reminding yourself that you are only human, that so many others have also messed up and felt terrible about it, and remind yourself that you are worthy of compassion and of forgiveness.
Today, I am forgiving myself for not getting enough sleep, which caused my anxiety to rise as well as my irritability towards others. Today, I am forgiving myself for taking on so much and often feeling like I want to quit. And today, I am forgiving myself for being so hard on myself when things don’t go my way.
The people that love us the most will always forgive us when we mess up. We deserve to forgive ourselves as well. We deserve to be that trusted place for ourselves when we fall short. We deserve to be the person that loves ourselves so much, that when we feel like we didn’t do our best, we can provide comfort to ourselves, rather than criticism and judgment.
Try giving yourself a break today. You are doing the best you can. And I can assure you, that it is enough. So if you messed up and it’s tearing you apart, it’s okay, but remember that you deserve forgiveness to continue on this beautiful life that you have been given.
Xo,