Getting High on Recovery

Today is a day to remind yourself that you are perfect just the way you are.

“People don’t always show up the way you want them to.” Phillip Seymour Hoffman in The Mockingjay

Motivation is difficult some days. Today, I sat down to the computer and nothing flowed. I wrote this post four times and none of it worked. So I gave up trying and just went with it.

I really have no plan for where this post is going. For a writer with control issues, it is scary as hell.

Today, I just accept that I am not able to show up the way that I want to be. The ideas don’t flow and my mind feels thick. My body feels like it is slow and each step takes work. But days like today are also a reminder: Life is more about being at peace than going to war.

You and I are built for peace, not for war. We don’t have thick skin and bristling armor built into our bodies. We are soft and easily broken. But despite our frailties and our humanity, we are resilient. We fall, but we get up, again and again.

What today is about for me is this: The more you can find ways to be at peace with yourself, rather than trying to go to war against your moods or your bad days, the happier (and probably more productive) you will be.

Do you go to war against yourself?

You can see it when you get angry at yourself for your bad habits, your mistakes and your failures. You put yourself down for the things that make you human. You don’t forgive yourself and you think cruel thoughts about yourself. War is never pleasant.

The Golden Rule reminds us about treating other people the way that we treat ourselves. If you cannot invest a little love in your own direction, how can you be there for another person? Maybe today is a day to love yourself a little bit more.

Ask yourself: How do I care for myself on the days when I just don’t show up the way I want to? How am I showing grace to myself, today?

So much of what we do is about changing ourselves, motivating ourselves, managing our time and our energy. We get used to viewing ourselves as unacceptable the way we are. Today just might be a day to remind yourself that you are perfect just the way you are. It is a day to lay down your weapons.

As difficult as it may feel, today is a day to love yourself and be kind to yourself.

I don’t know about you, but I declare today a day where I don’t have to fit in. I am going to take a day. Have the grace to just be yourself. I hope that you find the grace to be inspired today. Be yourself, be in your body and be at peace.

Remember that you need your cracks because they are the only way for you to let the light in.

Ring the bells that still can ring.

Forget your perfect offering.

There is a crack in everything.

That’s how the light gets in.

Leonard Cohen, Anthem

As a companion to this piece, I recommend To Heal, You Must Become the Art. You may also be interested in Your Healing Manifesto.

I write articles about wellness, leadership, parenting and personal growth. My hope is to deliver the best content I can to inspire, to inform and to entertain. Sign up for my blog if you want to receive the latest and best of my writing. If you like what I have to say, please share my work with your friends.

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Keep it Real

Photo by Phil Galdys