Take a minute and reflect on the past week. Did you put a lot of pressure on yourself? Did you feel a lot of stress if your checklists and deadlines were not completed or met? Did you try to be perfect?
Notice where in your body you feel this pressure to perform and be perfect. Do you clench your jaw, tighten your stomach, hold your breath? Do you eat less or more, feel irritable or sad, get quiet and withdrawn, or act more rigid and reactive towards others?
The goal in recovery from anything is to identify the origin of our negative thoughts and feelings so that we can resolve them and live a lighter, happier existence. So, take a moment and ask yourself these questions: When did you start to believe that you had to be perfect, flawless? When did you start to put so much pressure on yourself to perform? In what ways are you "performing" in your life? Are you doing so in your relationships? Why? Who does it really benefit?
What if you are absolutely perfect just the way you are? What if just by you being born you are perfect and there is nothing you have to do or say to reach the illusion of perfection, because you have already arrived? Easy to swallow this concept?
Alot of folks have a hard time accepting that they are perfect as they are. After all, we each have this illusive ideal of what perfection entails, right?
American culture sets us up to believe that we each can live the "American Dream" and social media often floods our minds with images of what this "dream" entails including how we are supposed to act, look, feel, etc.There are no accidents why this is called a "dream" because it is not real. However, it sets people up to feel shame and guilt if they are not striving towards an illusion of perfection.
So, take a moment and ask yourself these questions: "What if I am perfectly imperfect? What does that mean to me? Can I accept that my imperfections are mine and they are what makes me perfect? Or do I want to continue to beat myself up for not being someone else's ideal?
Let yourself off the hook starting today by allowing yourself to make mistakes, laugh at yourself, embrace your flaws as uniquely yours, and let go of the rest. Life is to short.....
Remember, you are worth it.
Namaste,
Candice