I have spent most of my life giving myself a hard time. If something went wrong or if someone got upset, I would be the first person to put my hand up thinking it was my fault – even if it wasn’t. I have been very quick at putting myself in the doghouse, so to speak. This has been a pattern that I always remember having; it has been my normal.
Because of this belief I often attracted situations and relationships where I was also given a hard time, which simply to me confirmed my belief that indeed something was wrong with me. Giving myself a hard time was part of my foundation – so much so that until recently I didn’t even realise the extent to which I internally battered and beat myself.
Since coming to the work of Universal Medicine and being a Student of The Way of The Livingness, I have already made quite an inroad into developing a way of living that is self-honouring and self-loving. This has brought much clarity and joy on a day-to-day basis, however I can now see that this default program of giving myself a hard time has been capping my expansion and evolution.
Having had a Universal Medicine practitioner lovingly point out that this was a pattern of mine, I decided to explore the possibility of choosing another way. First of all, I recognised that I had been saying ‘yes’ to this pattern and I began to explore why I was choosing it. I became aware of the cycle that played out in my self-abuse.
Whenever anyone would question me on something that I had done or said, I would be quick to doubt myself, then I would disconnect from my body to go into more doubt, become very confused, give up on myself and then internally bash myself over the head for not getting it right: the whole time, not assessing or feeling if what had been said was indeed true for me or not.
By acknowledging that this was a recurring pattern, I started to make inroads by seeing just how debilitating this pattern was and how much it was holding me back.
The Game Changer – Self-Appreciation
This was when I began a self-appreciation program where on a daily basis via text message I began to share with a friend at least two things that I appreciate about myself on that day. Because I already had a strong foundation of love in my body from the self-loving choices I had been making over the last four or five years, this opened up a fountain of appreciation for myself that I never knew was there, dwelling inside of me waiting to burst out.
I began to see very clearly just how awesome I am and just how much there is to appreciate about myself. I began to see daily that the amazingness of who I truly am far outweighs all the little things that I had been giving myself a hard time over.
As I have begun to deeply appreciate all that ‘I am’, the ‘what I am not’ has started to fade into the background. It is something that I need to lovingly work on, but I no longer identify with it as who I am.
No more doghouse for me! I found that my innate way of being really is to express from this appreciation.
Along with the appreciation of myself also has come hand in hand a deeper appreciation of others. As I focus on seeing the beauty in me, I cannot help but see the beauty in those around me. My foundation is shifting quickly and I now see how giving myself a hard time no longer serves me. It was a pattern that I chose as a way of keeping myself small, of not showing the world the glory of who I really am.
This article was inspired by Serge Benhayon and fellow Universal Medicine students and practitioners who have reflected that appreciation is a pathway to a deeper level of love.
By Donna Gianniotis, Age 41, BA Communication, Dip Health (Yoga)
Further Reading:
No Doubt
Love
Women in Livingess
Compliments And Me
The Truth about Serge Benhayon 
We have so many patterns its unreal at times. We expose one and there’s another and another. But what I love is that when we appreciate ourself’s more often, we find in that appreciation, we let go of those things that hold us back. We find that the only one that can heal from these things is YOU. A practitioner is our facilitator to our healing, and bring revelations for us to explore, the rest is unto us.
So appreciation is a building block to a fitness that does not allow any annihilation unto us, because in that appreciation we observe and feel the glory we are, and come from. It’s a building foundation to our earthly un-settlement.
“Along with the appreciation of myself also has come hand in hand a deeper appreciation of others.” So true, the more we feel and appreciate ourselves, the more we are aware of all there is to appreciate in those around us.
Yes I had forgotten about this, in our appreciation, we appreciate others. And in that appreciation of others, we feel the love we have for humanity, irrespective of the choices they make.
A Win Win Situation: “Along with the appreciation of myself also has come hand in hand a deeper appreciation of others. “
Donna I also love how you have focused on appreciation as being the bridge to taking us to a deeper relationship with ourselves and using this as an anti-dote to the doubts and negative thoughts and self flagellation. This is a very powerful yet simple way to work with getting rid of bad habits we may have held for years. The interesting thing is that appreciation is something most of us are not that good at to begin with…so it stands for us all as something to work on!
Donna, I so love what you have shared here in this blog as it is something so many of us can actually relate to – I too have been and still can fall into blaming myself immediately for anyone not feeling great for example. What a strange thing to make oneself responsible for! To clarify, of course we need common decency and respect with each other but if someone is having a bad day or does not like a truth we have respectfully and caringly shared, then this is not for us to have to carry as a burden. This is a great reminder for me to stay steady and keep appreciating all that I do bring to others.
Giving ourselves a hard time serves no one. Instead of that, taking the responsibility of our own choices and become aware how they may affects us and our body may support us to make real changes in life, this is something worthy to deeply appreciate 🙂
Love this because it makes a huge difference, there is no need for blame or judge, just a looking at the way we choose to live in our daily basis.
Appreciation, especially of self, is a fantastic tool to support us to come out of putting ourselves down in whatever manner we chose. Appreciation and confirmation are great tools to keep with us as we continue to evolve.
Learning to accept and appreciate ourselves, making choices that are more delicate, honouring and loving is the way forward for all of us.
Understanding the True power of appreciation definitely come when we live in a way that we can feel the authority, which also then is a confirming of our connection to our essences and thus we feel the purpose, then we can appreciate at a deeper level, and that appreciation holds us to the next purpose.
For me appreciation of self is surely one of the the ways back to love of self and others. The more appreciation I have about myself, in turn allow for greater appreciation of others.
Absolutely Mary, when we understand the divine essence within this is appreciated and thus we feel that we all have this within and thus appreciation for everyone equally as we are all the same.
One of the best things in life for me was to stop this self bashing. It was and still is so exhausting to give my a hard time that I chose to not do this anymore to the best of my ability of course.
Thank you Linda for your comment, I can relate as I can see this playing out in my own life. By understanding the cycles that present to support us to move back to soul, to love, such situations can be seen as an opportunity, something I am understanding more and more.
If we don’t appreciate ourselves and who we are we aren’t likely to either know ourselves or what we bring to the world, and we won’t truly value ourselves, that in itself is an opening for abuse and self abuse. But it goes the other way also, if we don’t appreciate others we also won’t value them which is again an opening for abuse, such as that described in the blog where we may blame others instead of taking responsibility for ourselves.
The path to the doghouse has less grass than the rest of the garden for me too! But you know it is not so nice to be around someone who permanently assumes guilt because they come across as a permanent victim…wisdom out of the mouths of babes 🙂
I am a master of giving myself a hard time and the doghouse – maybe I need to initiate this program too and rather than focus on stopping that behaviour focus on building more appreciation and confirmation in my life.
To self-doubt breeds more doubt and to appreciate offers more to appreciate.
By appreciating ourselves we naturally start appreciating other people.
I am sure we have all felt like this at one time or another and have made choices that we know are not the best choices to make and then beat ourselves up over them, what I have learnt is that they are opportunities to appreciate ourselves to learn from and to appreciate our honesty in knowing some choices are not our best ones but to appreciate them anyway and keep on appreciating because there is much to be appreciated in appreciation.
Love it, keep on appreciating, ‘ keep on appreciating because there is much to be appreciated in appreciation.’
When we feed a pattern like this we are saying yes to separation as it is constantly creating a barrier between us and the others.
It’s crazy that so many people are more comfortable with self-judgment and self-abuse than they are with appreciating and valuing themselves.
It is sad that that is the case, many people struggle to appreciate themselves, yet find it easy to judge and bash themselves.
Thank you Lucy exposed that we need to live from care all of the time.
Many will relate to this blog, I certainly do. It’s an example of how far we’ve lost our way when, we need to be re-programmed to love and appreciate ourselves.
I love how you use the word “reprogramming” here – it’s not that there is anything wrong innately with us, just that a reprogramming of how we approach life can be necessary.
Self bashing and being critical is indeed a pattern we subscribe to, something we willing;y choose. But not and never who we are. So it’s a matter of choice to stop this addiction.
Sometimes we can find that the quality in which we choose to do things in our life is normal as it is our standard in how we live, but when we look around this is not quite so for everyone. When we realise this fact for ourselves there is space to appreciate our so called ‘new normal’.
Appreciation of our ‘normal’ is so important, no matter what anyone else’s ‘normal’ looks like and comparison is a thief to celebrating the joy of where we are at. Comparison feels like a 10 tonne brick to carry around on our backs – only making enough space to beat ourselves up and there is certainly no room for appreciation! Yet once we can appreciate our ‘normal’, we then have an opportunity to discern if we would like to deepen the relationship of any part of our ‘normal’. Now who wouldn’t want to keep developing and deepening if it meant less baggage to carry around and no more self-bashing?!
Appreciation is a key that opens the door for more appreciation and a deeper love for self and others.
Beautifully said Jill – it is a stepping stone that leads us to return to deeper and deeper depths of love we had forgotten about.
There are many ways to establish a privileged relationship with time (as opposed to space). Giving ourselves a hard time is just one of them.
The way you’ve put it makes it very clear Eduardo. It is making the world turn around for ourselves and nothing else.
That is beautiful said and science is revealed by these two simple sentences.
“As I have begun to deeply appreciate all that ‘I am’, the ‘what I am not’ has started to fade into the background” – this is such a powerful statement.
I was in a mess earlier today while on the phone to another and she asked me to start appreciating myself. It was like pulling teeth at first but eventually I felt it melting the horrible feelings. It does work and reminds me to pick it up again as a regular practice.
We have an expression in our house when someone is beating themselves up that always makes us smile – we call them ‘Whaaaambulance moments’ – ambulance moments for an adult who is struggling to process what is happening and feels the pull to regress to being a baby and makes the Whaaa sound. There have been many but recognising that it is just that the brain is struggling to process what is happening or has happened and coming back to the foundation we know we have built through appreciation, seems to be the most loving way we have been able to support each other.
It doesn’t matter how old we are we can still throw a tantrum. But it’s how we come back to and care for ourselves that shows the level of maturity. I love your light-hearted approach to it.
So true Leigh – when we feel awful it is so difficult to appreciate ourselves or another. But this only shows that we have disconnected, and hence the best antidote is the connection which comes hand in hand with appreciation. Well done – and thank you for reminding me of what I too can do when I fall into a similar situation!
It seems that appreciation of one’s self is food for the body and the soul, and the more we appreciate the more there is to appreciate, always more to deepen.
Appreciation is key to having a loving and deep connection with ourselves, and in this connection we naturally want to share and express our love and appreciation to others.
Donna – I love how you have brought your focus to be with the true inner qualities rather than the outer perceived weaknesses and feckless issues we can get stuck in as being real.
We see behaviours like self doubt and being hard on ourselves as who we are, but they only come in after we separate from our essence and the enjoyment of living that. We may see appreciation as a remedy for them but it’s really just anchoring us back to ourselves so that the energy that doesn’t belong can’t enter.
Appreciation allows us to literally stop and smell the roses of where we are at so that the next step we take is steady and both enhanced and enriched by that foundation.
There is such a great beauty to all of us and for the majority we do not believe this to be true. I personally am so glad I met Serge Benhayon because he supports anyone to come to this understanding that within us all is this beauty. Why we are withholding this from ourselves is another question. But none the less if we are willing to seek the exquisite beauty within we will find it buried underneath all of the ideals and beliefs we have been crushed by.
There is beauty in all of us, are we prepared to let that beauty be seen and felt by ourselves, and another?
No appreciation, no love, it is that simple.
Beautiful to read Donna thank you for sharing, I can relate to what you have shared giving myself a hard time for not getting it right, when I came to understand about appreciation for myself it felt so foreign to the self loathing I had lived with most of my life. I have now come to feel how appreciation is the key to a greater depth of love for ourselves and each other.
Whilst we are busy focusing on what we aren’t, or feeling that we aren’t good enough yet, or focusing on so called mistakes, we miss out on expressing the true essence of ourselves and enjoying all that we are through appreciating our qualities. This is a great line Donna “As I have begun to deeply appreciate all that ‘I am’, the ‘what I am not’ has started to fade into the background. It is something that I need to lovingly work on, but I no longer identify with it as who I am.”
“I have been very quick at putting myself in the doghouse, so to speak. This has been a pattern that I always remember having; it has been my normal.” I can so relate to this also. Then a wise lady said to me ‘you need to see yourself through the eyes of God’. This has been a great guide for when I am giving myself a hard time.
‘you need to see yourself through the eyes of God’. A super beautiful advice, precious to behold for everyone.
Thank you Irena. Everything in my body has just re-configured itself whilst reading this sentence –
‘you need to see yourself through the eyes of God’
Very timely to read this today ‘you need to see yourself through the eyes of God’ as giving myself a hard time is lurking in the shadows.
Beautiful advice Irena, something to live from, and not just for ourselves but for how we see everyone.
“I began to see daily that the amazingness of who I truly am far outweighs all the little things that I had been giving myself a hard time over.” Appreciation is far more powerful and beautiful than self-doubt.
Giving ourselves a hard time can seem so normal and yet it is so abusive. To live life never being able to live up to the ideal, and expectations we have of ourselves leaves us in a constant state of feeling like a failure.
Very true, so the key is to identify what is the imposing ideal or belief I am forcing myself into here?
“As I have begun to deeply appreciate all that ‘I am’, the ‘what I am not’ has started to fade into the background”. I love the way appreciation changes our perspective. It is not a mind over matter exercise either. It is simply noticing and feeling the loveliness that is actually there, instead if focus on issues or mental dilemmas.
It is where we choose to put our focus, on appreciation, and so it expands, ‘Along with the appreciation of myself also has come hand in hand a deeper appreciation of others. As I focus on seeing the beauty in me, I cannot help but see the beauty in those around me.’
Normalizing the utterly abnormal is the norm; yet is a norm that is truly abnormal. Seeing things this way is normal and helps to bring back a sense of normality that is true and that resonate deeply with our bodies.
When we are in doubt, we have already moved away from our connection to the love we are in essence, as such we lose sense of the truth that through our connection to our essence, we are amazing through and through with every move. It is appreciating this connection that supports us to stand solidly, knowing this truth and continuing to walk in our true expression without question, regardless of how the world reacts.
I have also found that the more I develop a relationship to myself through self love and appreciation of who I am, the more I relate to others the same way. Our relationship to ourselves is an amazing investment in our relationship to all others.
It really does support our appreciation of others by simply appreciating ourselves.
Appreciation… This is such an enormous subject… Appreciation of others is such a beautiful thing to practice… Appreciation of ourselves is the foundation for our connection with our own true heart.
It is absurd how we run these self-critical programs that, if we allow them, totally override the connection to the beauty we are. The beauty and the love that is there for everybody. Thanks for this reminder Donna.
I just realised that self-doubt is self bashing. Same same. It’s also not about making mistakes for no-one is perfect and we will make them, but even with that, there is no need to doubt who we are. With self-doubt we are not able to feel or see who we are. Door shut…Enter appreciation, this quality and way of being allows us to open like a blossom and see the magnificence that we truly are.
Appreciation around mistakes can support us to make it about the quality we bring to the world, and accept that the temporal life and daily practicalities will never be perfect, there will be mistakes, and that there is something greater we can bring consistently which is simply ourselves. As we come to realise the importance of our soulful quality as a healing presence for the world we can hold it more consistently, which is what we drop when we react to mistakes.
“appreciation is a pathway to a deeper level of love.” These are such beautifully powerful words when expressed this way, what is there not to appreciate when it can deepen our own love and our love for others. Everything is there to appreciate for the opportunity of learning and evolving that it presents.
Appreciation continues to be the tool to bring us out of self-bashing and self-doubt and into a way of confirming rather than negating ourselves, as it offers us the opportunity to reflect on the small-to-large qualities we have clocked about ourselves during the day and from there to begin a process of building a solid foundation of our true value to the world.
We are super skilled at finding what we have done wrong, blowing it out of proportion and bashing ourselves for it, rather than accepting that it was a moment to learn from, take responsibility for and move on.
At school I remember competing with negative self bashing talk, we would constantly put ourselves down in order not to get attention or jealousy from another. This pattern has stuck with me and amplified as I got older and I found more reasons to tell myself I was not good enough or that there was something wrong with me. With appreciation, I have started to turn the volume down and I now have to tune in more carefully to notice whether I am being harsh with myself or not.
This is so true, “Giving myself a hard time was part of my foundation – so much so that until recently I didn’t even realise the extent to which I internally battered and beat myself.” In the same way we can change the “foundation” by changing the way we are with ourselves, sounds to easy right? It is that simple and the only thing that doesn’t make it simple is the same thing that has been giving us “a hard time” for all these years. Developing an ongoing self appreciation just for being is the only way to move out of this internal battle, we only need to make the change.
To appreciate the little things in life is perhaps more important than the big things.The big ones are easy to acknowledge while the little ones can get taken for granted and they build a solid foundation of self-worth that supports us in challenging times.
A beautiful sharing Donna! I love your phoning a friend and sharing at least one word of appreciation for yourself each day !
Appreciation allows us to feel who we truly are and this supports our foundation we express from.
Imagine what life would be like if we’d been taught about the role of appreciation in blitzing low self-esteem and self-worth issues at school? If we’d got into an early habit of appreciating our innate qualities rather than seeking recognition for our achievements? Appreciation is a much diluted word in its meaning from the truth of what it offers in practice. It’s well worth investing a few minutes every day in self-appreciation as it starts to strengthen our sense of who we are and the qualities of the unique essence we each bring.
This is such a simple program but by the sound of it, it really works. I am going to give it go, as it seems like a great and inexpensive way to build a more solid relationship with myself.
What a beautiful way to support and develop your connection to yourself. I’m going to find a text buddy and do the same thing.
Thank you Donna — you show us that we actually have no issues at hand – it is more the familiarity with struggle (identification).. Hence when we let go of this.. all we find is the glory and nature of who we are. As you have shared with us: ‘This has brought much clarity and joy on a day-to-day basis, however I can now see that this default program of giving myself a hard time has been capping my expansion and evolution.’
We do not stop and appreciate ourselves and others, where we are each at and all that comes our way nearly enough.
So many people have this pattern of self bashing that you describe, very sad and debilitating, how great that you have let go of this pattern and are now appreciating and loving yourself.
Beautiful this is truly the core of it : ‘My foundation is shifting quickly and I now see how giving myself a hard time no longer serves me. It was a pattern that I chose as a way of keeping myself small, of not showing the world the glory of who I really am.’ It is about accepting my responsibility that is living from the wholeness of me and bring that out to the world – without holding back the power of who I am.
Appreciating myself for my natural qualities has been an absolute life-changer for me. Joy is now becoming a more regular companion in my everyday life which is the most incredible thing ever!
Yes, appreciating for who I am and the qualities I bring instead of for what I do is a whole shift of consciousness and looking at the world.
It’s been amazing to consistently reflect on the thoughts I have, to see how these thoughts whether positive or negative, loving or unloving then impact on how I see the world and people. It is our relationship with ourselves that then dictates how we see others and the world and so self critique yourself and then this is your default for others and this example can be applied to everything. You can only do to someone first what you have done to yourself and so equally if you are holding an ongoing love and deep care for yourself then this is what touches the world. There is no end to how far you can expand this all and when this thought comes that there is then it’s time to expand things further. Life isn’t just what physically happens outside of us, there is far more occurring around us then we bring awareness to.
I noticed an old pattern creep in tonight – one where someone was putting me in the doghouse, and I was allowing it by not speaking up, and withdrawing, which was then feeding the other person’s behaviour – my silence was confirming their talking as ‘right’. I felt reduced and less than, and could also feel myself going into victim mode – I can’t say anything because of xyz.. all a big story which means that I don’t have to rock the boat, risk upsetting the other person, and can stay comfortable as the victim. The amazing thing is that the more I build a steady foundation within myself – make more choices to feel amazing and know that it’s okay just to be me, the more anything that is not of that same amazing quality really starts to stand out – including all of my own behaviours and patterns – and it makes me want to start to choose differently.
What a beautiful example of the fact that making the commitment to bring appreciation into our lives has a most natural ripple effect, with the ripples not only flowing through our body but through the bodies of all those around us. As love and appreciation are inextricably intertwined, it is a given that where there is self-love there is self-appreciation, with this divine union having the power to change lives, starting with our own.
Appreciation inspires more appreciation and it is important to never hold back our appreciation for ourselves and all that we bring and indeed, for all others.
I can very much relate Donna – for most of my life, self-bashing and self-critique have been the staples. It has needed and continues to need a huge commitment from myself to turn this around, and build self-appreciation as the foundation that holds me instead. It is amazing what happens when we do commit to this – how hugely held we know we are by the endless well of our own ever expansive and universal love.
It is interesting why we put emphasis on the 20% of our lives that we live in disconnection with our Natural way of being instead to the 80% we already are.
The beautiful thing about what you are sharing here is, that there is another way to live our life than we had taught or given in to, that there is another way where we can truly heal and thus can truly let go of things, which brings true change.
The more we work on appreciating ourselves, and accepting how truly great we are, the more the feelings of not being adequate will disappear. What I do is walk it, feeling the beauty of who I am and then magnify it by walking.
Forget the dog-house and start appreciating seems like a true message we can all learn from so thank you Donna. Texting a friend seems like a great idea and is now something I will do as soon as I find a friend!
Don’t forget a friend with a phone! and smart that phone has to be 🙂
With a smart phone we can probably find True family?
We say yes to those things we know diminish us and that is great to understand for then we know we have the tools in us to consider what in fact we’ve said yes to; and then as we build an appreciation of who we are and compound that we allow the space for all the other bits to fall away, knowing they are not us.
Thanks Donna, I really needed to read this today! After an incredible weekend of amazing things and people and appreciation, I feel unsettled today and it’s the smallest things that I’ve started to give myself a hard time over, instead of staying with the awesome settlement of appreciation. When I start to focus on the small stuff, I really easily lose myself in it, instead of just focusing on keeping on appreciating all of the amazing bits that are always there – but we just stubbornly choose to not focus on, sometimes.
Interesting to consider how e have come into the situation that we doubt or even bash ourselves for what we have done, will be doing or not have done, to name a few arguments we tend to use. As when we return to appreciation we naturally felt held in all that we do and with that we are able to appreciate others too. So could it be that we have lost that connection in us in which we naturally appreciate all of life as it is a precious gift from heaven, as to me life is?
You rock Donna!
It is incredible how we humans get so caught up in the little things of our imperfections and those of others, constantly self-bashing and judging relentlessly…it is only when we value what we bring, we can self-appreciate and then this easily extends to appreciating all others.
Bringing daily appreciation into our lives is a game changer, it helps let go of the old patterns of beating ourselves up, ‘I began to see daily that the amazingness of who I truly am far outweighs all the little things that I had been giving myself a hard time over.’
It seems to me we have the understanding of how to live in the world back-to-front. Rather than internalise with the critic, self punishing strategy to cope with a situation that hurts or we don’t know how to handle, in truth we can simple connect to the innate love that is already present and externalise this by letting it ripple out. This is a loving way to appreciate who we innately are.
There is a sneaky streak/s in me to not be all of me in and with the world. Gentle, loving, appreciation of myself is the way to get acquainted with these sneakies, to become aware and understand them for what they are so they aren’t the default protection to any external situation that feels a little or lot uncomfortable.
Thank you Donna, for what you have shared it is so very timely for me to realise these words, ‘It was a pattern that I chose as a way of keeping myself small, of not showing the world the glory of who I really am’. A great reminder of the power of appreciation in my life by confirming and expanding the love that I am.
I love the way appreciation works magic in our bodies. It brings and ease and settlement which brings more space for more appreciation so before long this foundation is so strong it paves the way of our next step. In effect when we appreciate ourselves we are guaranteeing the quality of our future.
Love this line Lucy; In effect when we appreciate ourselves we are guaranteeing the quality of our future.
I love the way appreciation works magic in our bodies. It brings an ease and settlement which brings more space for more appreciation so before long this foundation is so strong it paves the way of our next step. In effect when we appreciate ourselves we are guaranteeing the quality of our future.
Indeed Lucy, expressions of appreciation feel like stepping stones to more, greater and grand, to a place we deserve to be.
It’s amazing to see and hear of how our view sets up how we are. As this article offers if you are self critical you seemed to attract more of same and then this is your view and you identify this as ‘just being how you are’. It’s not until something expands your awareness for you to question and almost wake up to see. Appreciation isn’t just a word, it’s a way of life that for us can be a way to continually expand your awareness. No more loathing or battering yourself just a bigger picture focus with appreciation being the norm.
Great invitation to take my self-appreciation deeper. When we have a deep foundation of appreciation, it is also easier to look at one’s short comings, critique or whatever we have to unlearn or let go of that is not loving. I still put myself in the doghouse as well (love that expression!) but also combine it with blame. I feel bad but is someone else’s fault. They criticize me, than I take it in and criticize myself, feel bad and blame the other for feeling that way. The way to off set this trick? Appreciation!
When there is no appreciation, there can be no love, it is that simple.
A big thumbs up for appreciation programs. I do a daily text with a close friend, and as a family, we also share appreciations around the dinner table. It changes the focus away from the negative (which has also been my habit) and has opened my eyes to how much there is to appreciate about myself, others and life in general.
Expressing and sharing our appreciation with others is so powerful. Even just giving ourselves a moment to stop, and stock-take in itself is something to really appreciate about.
It is crazy how much time we spent focussing on our ‘short comings’ all the while there is so much grandness and beauty in an about us.
We can so easily get stuck in old, well worn patterns which do not serve us and which in fact hold us back … I love that you’ve been willing to address yours here Donna, and how the simple act of embracing appreciation showed you so much and how in fact you found this to be a natural expression. It has me asking how I can deepen my own appreciation and what I might find when I do.
I have spent most of my life giving myself a hard time also Donna; but no more. Your blog is a great inspiration to always remember that appreciation is the pathway to love.