A challenge...

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
A challenge...
12
Wed, 02-23-2005 - 7:36pm

I try to live my life by the philosophy of "Love your neighbor as you love yourself"...I know alot of people do. Today, I want to challenge all of you to Love yourself as you love your neighbor. I know I treat my neighbors, friends and family much better than I do myself most of the time. So, I am challenging you to treat yourself as you would treat your neighbor. For me....

1. I am going to buy that bouquet of flowers that I love because it would make me happy and I would buy it for my friend if I thought they would like it.
2. I am going to feed myself good food instead of junk food...I wouldn't feed my friend junk food because I'm too busy to cook.
3. I will go to bed early to get plenty of sleep...I would never dream of keeping a friend awake to do laundry.

What will you do?

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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
In reply to: mcduenas
Thu, 02-24-2005 - 6:08pm

"I am going to be kind to myself and give myself permission to be less than perfect."

Great statement!! It reminded me of a book I have...one of the chapters is called "The Courage to be Imperfect"

"If we have the courage to be human, then we can look at our own shortcomings and learn and improve. If not, we tend to look to others for the blame. Ask yourself "Am I learning from my mistakes or am I using them as an excuse to give up?"

With courage our mistakes become valuable training tools. If we lack that courage, we become defensive and pass up opportunities to learn more about ourselves. The courage to be imperfect allows us to take full responsibility for our actions." From Understanding Yourself and Others by Bill Riedler

I constantly have to remind myself of that...I have a tendency to put the blame on external influences. I am getting better though!

Maggie

iVillage Member
Registered: 02-27-2004
In reply to: mcduenas
Sun, 02-27-2005 - 7:24am

Hi Cara, thank you for your kind words, though I didn't mean to paint my mother in such a black light. She has done some worderful things for me in the past. As I said though she has (and still does) play favourites. I usually accept that her doing this is a problem to her and not me, but on this occasion she upset my daughter, which I think is why I allowed it to upset me. We usually laugh about it as my daughter is her all time favourite and she jokes to me about it, though my mum is careful to always buy for both of my children as she knows I would not allow her to get away with not doing so.

I try to remember that she is an old and lonely lady and do for her what I can without feeling too guilty about being unable to do everything she would like me to.

Carol

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