Be Kind To Yourself

This pepper makes me smile every time I see it.  I grew that pepper a few years ago and was delighted to have partnered with the universe to bring it into being.  Seriously.  How freaking awesome is a pepper that smiles at you?

And yes, that was a total digression from today's topic.  I'm stalling.

I know that some of you looked at the title of today's post and you died a little inside.  It's soooo trite.

Be kind to yourself.   Be KIND to yourself. Be kind to YOUR self.  Be kind to your SELF.

Blah, blah, blah.

OMG, I say to myself. We don't get extra points in this world by being nice to ourselves. We get points by breaking our backs to be kind to other people.  Everyone else comes first.  Everyone.  We get points for coming in last.

Shit.

If we treated other people the way we treat ourselves, we'd be in jail.

Which is why I submit that it's time to take a good look at how you talk to yourself and how you treat yourself.

Awareness is the first step.  Just become aware of the nasty things you say to yourself and when you don't give yourself what you need.  Or when you martyr up and go too long without.   Or when you wear Delayed Gratification like a freaking badge of honor.

[Erg. I just described myself. I'm really good at treating myself like crap.]

From now on, we're going to take notice when we are less than kind to ourselves.  And when we catch ourselves at it, we're going to do exactly the opposite for ourselves. 

If I catch myself saying:  'Robin, you're so dumb!  Why did you say that?  You've scarred that poor person for life.'  ...

...then I replace it with: 'Robin, you might have misspoken to that person.  You're great at apologizing and you're quick to fix these situations. I'm soooo going to give you a reward when you're done.'

If I catch myself working until I'm in pain, I reward myself with a long smelly-good bath and a night off.

I'm sure I'm not alone in this and that you'll be working on awareness, too.   And if you're already good at being kind to yourself,  shout out some of your favorite strategies in the comments.


We'll be working on issues like this during our October weekend retreat - My Best Life Now.  All the details are here.  Along with that, I'd like to invite you to join our Best Self facebook group where we can talk freely about becoming our best selves - and all that that entails.

Mind

© Robin Edmundson, 'After the storm', watercolor 10 x 14 inches.  Framed 18 x 22 inches.  

I just got back from a week at a business conference for artists.  It was amazing.   And exhausting.  And exhilarating.  And terrifying.  And upsetting.  And gratifying.  And challenging.  And fun.  And rewarding.  And mind-blowing.

There were 100 artists there and let me tell you, artist entrepreneurs are super interesting people.  I had a million great conversations with interesting, creative and insightful people.  I challenged myself to go out to every meal with someone new and sit down with someone new every day during the meetings - and I did.    I spoke at one of the sessions and totally rocked it - and that resulted in a bunch more opportunities to talk with people later.  We brainstormed, we planned, we cried, we tried, we failed, we tried again.  We reworked things to fit our own art, circumstances and goals.

It. Was. Awesome.

I am so grateful to have been exposed to a group that helped me stretch my thinking and challenge my mindsets.   The whole experience made me thankful for a good mind and the ability to work with it.  I hope you're grateful for your mind, too.

One of my goals in my Best Self quest for the next year is to make my own path and to find groups and activities where I have a great fit instead of just a so-so one.   In that vein, I'd like to start a facebook group for other serious artists who are working on their businesses and who need a supportive place to ask art biz questions and discuss all of the issues inherent to balancing life, art, business, family etc.  Email me if you're interested.    [If you have a good name for it, let me know...although now I'm thinking that The Well Balanced Artist is a possibility.]

And I'd like to invite you to join our Best Self facebook group where we can talk freely about becoming our best selves - and all that that entails.