Why do we beat ourselves up?  We are never going to be perfect.  We will continue to make mistakes; they are just opportunities to learn and grow.

And regarding mistakes, I have found something on my own personal journey that’s amazing. There are bits of me as a mom, daughter, and wife (for example) that I never loved.  I locked them away as bad and froze them in time. I avoided and denied that they existed because I was a 'good person'.

What I have found is that those trashed bits don’t go away.  They fester and pop up if not dealt with.

And the cool thing is that the cure is simple.  It’s all about acknowledgment, dropping the judgment and love. When we acknowledge these bits and stop judging them (really stop judging them, not just say we are) and when we sit with them in acceptance and love, magic happens.

It’s like pulling up a chair and sitting next to a crying child or upset teenager.  They may not want you to touch them or even speak, but your very presence helps.

Maybe it’s the first time this bit of us has been loved.  How cruel and arrogant of us to banish bits of ourselves from love. When we do so, we teach our children that bits of them are unlovable and unredeemable as well.  Children pick up on these things, even if the words are never spoken. They feel them in us and may be confused by our words that don’t match up.