The place where our most profound healing can occur

March 14, 2018 12:28 PM

The fact that our bodies don’t cooperate all the time can be frustrating.

That’s my fourteenth sneeze since lunch. This is ridiculous. How can I still have allergies after two weeks?

But we can’t beat ourselves up for being human. Being overly critical about our bodies only halts progress in its tracks and pushes the shame spiral deeper.

And if we treat each day as yet another onslaught of opportunities to not be good enough, we miss the myriad opportunities to heal things within ourselves.

Ask anyone who’s ever been in recovery. The place where our most profound healing can occur is grounded in compassion, acceptance and forgiveness. Whether we’re fighting a head cold, or fighting a battle inside of our heads, the way we speak to ourselves is paramount.

Here’s a collection of mantras that help me get to a place of healing.

I know that I valuable even when I make a mistake.

I forgive myself for what I think I’ve done wrong.

I choose to interrupt myself at any stage of the mental chain reaction.

I expect mistakes and trust that they’re the doorways to growth.

Unlike cold and flu medicine, reciting these incantations never make my allergy symptoms go away any faster.

But they do help me to suffer gracefully. They do help me use life’s upsets as opportunities for healing instead of weapons to attack myself.

And they do allow me to gradually loosen the knots of misidentification on my rope of misery.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…

What if you tried giving yourself compassion the next time you felt challenged beyond your ability to cope?* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag