BEING KIND TO ONESELF
“Life hands us opportunities
at every turn to get over ourselves,
to get outside
ourselves, to wake up from our bad dreams
and realize that
really lovely things are happening all the time.”
-
Shauna Niequist
-
“Think it’s a bad dream,
and move on.” Has anyone tried to counsel you with these words? Or, have you
tried to counsel someone with these words?
Most probably, the answer is ‘Yes’! And, yes…
Most probably, that good counselor is none but your own conscious self!
There are so many episodes in my life, which I
wish I hadn’t experienced at all. But, the truth is, that I had experienced
them. Though those episodes are long over, they have left behind some traces,
deep in my mind and, now and then, I find myself overwhelmed by their unpleasant
memories…
I think, it’s not a unique experience with me
alone. We all have our own shares of pleasant and unpleasant memories buried deep
inside our subconscious minds. Despite our conscious attempts to make peace
with them, often, these memories – particularly the unpleasant ones – show up and,
make us uncomfortable with ourselves, for a while…
Interestingly, this happens in our waking
hours… These are the nightmares we see in our day time!
Again, am I alone in this? Hope, I am not…
So, in my conscious mind, I hear this good counsel,
“Think it’s a bad dream, and move on!”
In Life, we cannot undo the clock… What has
happened has happened. Some of our decisions do go wrong, some of our relationships
do turn sour and some of our behaviour does go wrong… And, when we realize our
mistakes, we also realize, that we cannot undo them. But, thanks to that shrill
voice inside us, we learn to accept those unpleasant experiences as part of our
spiritual growth… and try to move on in life, putting these episodes behind as
our bad dreams!
Being kind to oneself is a conscious act of
self-care. Self-acceptance and self-forgiveness are just impossible without
this quiet act of kindness to self.
GERALD D’CUNHA
Pic.: Anil Bedi
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