“The real difficulty is to overcome how you think about yourself.” ~ Maya Angelou
Our personal journey’s have many joyous moments and many difficulties, each there to aide us, teach us and guide us to our awesome potential. One of the more obvious, yet complex and ultimately important of these is summed up in this stunning quote from the soul of Maya Angelou…
“The real difficulty is to overcome how you think about yourself.“
How do you think about yourself? On the whole is it in a positive way or a negative way? Do you feel like you’re at peace with your thoughts about yourself or is there a war waging there? Are you kind in your thoughts toward and about yourself or do you judge harshly and always end up lacking? Would you think about others the way you think about yourself?
These are some heavy questions, I know. And I know all too well that it is usually much easier to simply avoid them rather then answer them. For myself, it’s because I found that I didn’t like the answers I had to those questions. Why was I so willing to be so mean, so harsh to myself. When had I allowed a negative, judgemental way of thinking about myself to become the norm? The truth was, I had allowed myself to use other’s, and worse still, society’s notions of “normal” and “acceptable” to begin to dictate and define my supposed shortcomings. It started when I was in a really rough place emotionally and I couldn’t see what was happening. I internalized the messages sent my way without even realizing it and I allowed it to begin to twist my inner workings until I lost sight of myself. My own voice was drowned out by the constant bombardment that I hadn’t even noticed was taking it’s toll.
It was this year that my eye’s started to be opened to what had happened and what was still happening. My inner dialogue was corrupting me and making me feel off and almost ill. I felt like a fraud since outside I presented a happy, positive air but inside I was all negative ache. Having to face the truths, painful, ugly, raw as they were and how they made me feel really sucked. But you know what? Living with such a relentless meanness towards myself was even worse, especially when I realized that’s what I was doing.
By choosing to face the difficulty and working towards overcoming how I was thinking about myself, I started to feel more like me again. I still have work to do (don’t we all – it is the purpose of life after all) and I can still find myself thinking negatively and harshly about myself but I am doing my utmost to overcome it. I know I shall prevail and the more I do, the better me I’ll be. How do you think about you?
Namaste ~ Ella
~ Affirmation Mondays are positive words of wisdom, insight and joy to add a bit of cheer to the start of your week and any day you need a bit of a pick-me-up! For even more inspiration please check out my Affirmation Mondays Pinterest Board and my Quote-spirational Board!
~ Check my Instagram on Mondays for Inspirational quotes and every day for a little jolt of happiness!
Lawhimsy 