Rich or poor, public or private, life touches you, changes you, wounds you. The change may be an open cut or a slow, silent outpouring of the soul. For the outside world, you may look as if you’ve put your act together, but each of us encounters dark stormy days when we feel fragile, frightened as if we might shatter into thousands of pieces and break into devastating sobs at a simple question: “How are you?”
Be kind to yourself when it happens, do not beat yourself up. Your feelings are valid, real, even when they are not based on reality. You must remember to love yourself first when these situations occur in your life. Treat yourself to small indulgences and pleasures, like buying your favorite meal, or a bouquet of daffodils, or your favorite perfume. Take the day off and go to a movie or walk in the park to bask in the sunshine and hear the birds singing. How about saying “no” to the next request for you to do something?
You don’t have to do everything or be everything for everyone else all the time. And if you think that one more request to do something will make you scream and cry, you are probably right. You must be there for yourself. No one can do it for you. And when you lost yourself remember that it didn’t happen all at once. It happened gradually, over the years, so be kind to yourself in the process of finding and loving yourself once again. You will recover from whatever you went through, one kind gesture toward you at the time, one day at the time.
Love,
Carmen Monica
Carmen Monica Oprea 