What is great about you?
What do you like about yourself?
The last few weeks I have heard lots of people talk about New Year Resolutions. However, when we make new year resolutions, often we look for problems that we want to fix. Then we make changes to improve something about ourselves or stop doing something we don’t like.
On the surface of it, we think that this is a really good thing, because we are striving for getting better and improving ourselves. What we don’t realise is this: whilst we are looking for things to fix, subconsciously we are thinking that there is something wrong with us. We think that we are not good enough. That we need to be better, or look a certain way, or have certain things, or be able to do something we don’t do at the moment. We are self-critical, looking for faults to ‘fix’, and often blaming ourselves along the way that we ‘should’ be different. This is a very negative place to start the year from.
Instead, look for something positive. Ask yourself what do you like about yourself? What is good about you? A lot of people might find this quite difficult to do because we’re not used to thinking about ourselves in this way but as with anything new, practice makes perfect. It may feel alien at first, and people get all caught up in worries that they might be being boastful or arrogant if they are positive about themselves. British society especially expects self-depreciation as the norm. But we can appreciative of what is good and real. By only focussing on what needs improvement we train ourselves to always see only the negative. Our minds need balance, so we need to practice seeing the good as well as the bits that might need work.
A different new year resolution…
So maybe this is a good years resolution to start with: practice thinking what you DO like about yourself? What is good already? Celebrate your strengths. Appreciate the beautiful things about you. Be mindful of what makes you special.
Let me know in the comments below: what is it that you do like about yourself? what is good? What is great?
