We Can Be More Gentle With Ourselves

I love the holidays, but there is so much to do. It can be hectic. High expectations. High stress. It's hard to measure up. Take time to do something nice for yourself, and please while you're dishing up kindness to everyone else, take a nice portion for yourself. If everything's not perfect, relax and look for the humor in the situation. Reduce stress by choosing gratitude. When things go wrong remember how awesome you are and always be gentle with yourself.

I love these healing words by Michael McLean. You may want to post them somewhere in your home to help you find peace when you are doing the Holiday Dance of Stress.


Gentle

Words and Music by Michael McLean


Like a gentle wind can blow the clouds from the sky,
Like a gentle touch can ease the pain of goodbye,
Like a gentle smile embraces empty souls in lonely places,
We should be more gentle with ourselves.


Like the friend who gently builds us up when we're down,
Like a gentle kiss can turn our world all around,
We've been hurt by others often,
We've forgiven and forgotten,
We should be more gentle with ourselves.


Life can be hard but
we need not be so hard
on ourselves,
If we will see...


Like the Shepherd leads his flock with gentle commands.
With his gentle voice that only hearts understand.
One thing we can know for certain, He has borne the awful burdens
so we can be more gentle with ourselves.


One thing that I know for certain:
He will bear my every burden,
So I can be gentle with myself.


Thanks, Mike. I love those words.

Linda Garner

Is This You?

Is this YOU? Is your calendar out of control? Can you squeeze one more thing into your day planner? Are you addicted to your “to do” list?

Do you ever feel like you are in charge of everything and in control of nothing? Reminds me of the sign in my aunt’s kitchen: The hurrier I go, the behinder I get. If something goes wrong, are you the first lady of solutions? Are you the family fixer? Are you a general authority (an authority on everything in general)?

How’s it working out for you?

Why do we do this to ourselves?

Loving yourself is the key. It is not conceited to love yourself. It is essential. How can we hope to love anyone else if we don’t first love ourselves?

We take care of the things we love. Loving ourselves helps us to take care of ourselves. One problem with being too busy is that we don’t have time to take care of ourselves. If we aren’t careful we can become worn out and depleted. No good can come of it.

Another problem with being too busy is that we don’t have time to feel things. We need to feel things. We need to face our uncomfortable feelings so that we can make positive changes. If we cover up problems by filling up our “to do” list, then we miss the warning signs that things are amiss.

When we are too busy to feel, we don’t have time for feeling good about ourselves. We need to feel valued. We need to feel loved. We need to feel beautiful. We need to feel important. We need to feel that we are good enough. And most important, we need to feel peace.

How are you going to schedule that into your dayplanner?

Feeling good about ourselves doesn't come from what others think or say. It's an inside job. What we believe about ourselves carries the most weight. Others may complement us, but it won’t mean a thing until we believe it.

Believe in yourself. Believe in your worth. Believe that you are beautiful, important, and enough. Find peace.

Today, take time for you. Take time to feel.

Linda Garner