When you’re angry with yourself, when you feel like you’ve made a mistake or fallen down in life, do you start chastising yourself, using language to describe your competency (or lack of) with words you’d never use with another?  Do you get angry with yourself and beat yourself up?

What if you chose to do something different?

What if you chose to not get angry and fall into self-defeating games filled with negative self-talk that tears down your well-being?

Before you get angry with yourself, do something different. Love yourself first.

Loving yourself first doesn’t mean letting yourself off the hook of accountability or responsibility for mistakes and mis-steps.

It means, learning from what you’ve done, committing to do better, making amends where necessary and treating yourself like you deserve to have a second, third, even more chances to do your best.

We are all works in progress and when we beat ourselves up because our work in progress is not ‘perfect’, we undermine our capacity to take this journey of life loving ourselves each step of the way.

So, next time you feel like you made a mistake that deserves your unforgiveness or so unbelievable you deserve to be chastised and beaten up for being so human, stop. Take a breath and whisper quietly to your heart.

“It’s okay. We’re okay. This is just me being human. And being human is what I do best.”

Now. Breathe and be. Breathe and be.

Love yourself first.