5/25/2023 0 Comments I must be loyle to my capoWhen I’m loyal to myself, I care more about how I feel and a lot less about trying to figure out everyone else’s feelings. It’s incredibly liberating to get this one straight. For some reason, I didn’t spend nearly as much time asking myself what I thought about them! How do we really know? I spent many, many unprofitable hours in the past trying to figure out what other people thought about me. The biggest problem with prioritizing others’ feelings is that, unlike our own feelings, we have to guess about theirs. It simply means that you are willing to pay attention to them, and to let them matter to you at least as much as everyone else’s feelings. It’s possible to honor your feelings without either acting them out inappropriately or wallowing in them. You honor your own feelings.Īgain, we are usually overly sensitive to others’ feelings and only too ready to deny or minimize our own. Maybe we think that we’ll never amount to anything if we don’t ride ourselves hard, but honestly, when did you ever find that kind of treatment motivating? We deserve better from ourselves. Seeing the good, and not just what we wish were different. Do you encourage and congratulate yourself, or only berate and exhort? Would you ever dream of talking to a child that way?īeing loyal to yourself means treating yourself gently, being kind and forgiving and generous. Listen to how you talk to yourself routinely. We are often so much harder on ourselves than we would be on anyone else. I’m being loyal to myself when I turn down social opportunities that I know will exhaust me, and then go a step further by refusing to put myself down for being “less than.” This is key! It kind of misses the point if we do something to take care of ourselves but then beat ourselves up for being lazy or selfish or even just different. Being loyal to yourself means that you not only know what makes you happy, but you actually make sure you get enough of it to feel happy.įor instance, in my case it means I’ve come to terms with the fact that I’m an introvert, and have stopped trying to make myself behave like an extrovert. Usually it seems that everyone else- everyone-comes ahead of us. You don’t have to be a raging egotist to value your own happiness as much as you do the neighbors’ kids’ friend’s pet rabbit, but you might think that was the case if you really examined how you allocate your time and energy. And even if we do, how often do we give it priority? Usually we’re great at knowing the people around us-what the kids watch on TV, how the boss likes her coffee, what our partners find sexy-and have very little idea of what actually brings us joy. ![]() When you’re loyal to yourself, you take the time to know yourself. In time-honored self-questioning mode, I immediately thought, “Oh my gosh, what does that mean? Does she think I’m selfish?” But once I decided not to go down that road, I started pondering what it might mean to be loyal to one’s self, and how it truly is the basis for a happier and more peaceful life. “I really admire how loyal you are to yourself.” And it must follow, as night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.” ~William ShakespeareĪ little while ago, a friend gave me a compliment that stopped me in my tracks. ![]() “This above all: to thine own self be true.
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