“Your self-image is made up of your judgments. It’s not the real you. Sit for 10 minutes with this question:
What’s it like to be me when I’m not judging myself?”
Louise Hay, from Live Loves You card deck
Yes, I”m 66. And yes, I’ve learned a lot and changed a lot along the way. But my negative judgments about myself – learned at such an early age they became my ‘normal’ – still prevail. I understand they were someone else’s stories, someone with their own profound insecurities and fears. And for years I swore I’d never marry or have kids so as not to have a similar painful effect on someone else.
But there were other judgments, too. Positive, approving, encouraging judgments that somehow nestled so deep in my psyche I never heard them. But along with a realization that marching to a different drum was my reality, those positive judgments propelled me to many successes. And the voices – spirit guides? – that made my seemingly odd choices simply unavoidable to me, allowed me to let real love into my heart, the kind of unconditional acceptance quite foreign to me at the time.
And now? Despite all the extraordinary blessings in my life, I still carry those initial and enduring negative judgments around with me.
Louise’s wisdom has me wondering: What IS it like to be me when I’m not judging myself? I think I’ll go set the timer and see what comes up. It’s definitely time.
What about you? Is Louise’s question tough for you too?
