Friday, June 16, 2017

Being Kind and Gentle


There's a lot of pressure in our society to do great things and be a success. It's wonderful to have goals and work on things but it's never good when this pressure becomes stressful. There's always talk of being kind to others, but how about being kind to ourselves? It's always good to include ourselves in that kindness.

I have been feeling really tired and a little under the weather recently. I don't know if it's allergies, heat, or that I'm still trying to recover. Regardless, my first "go to" emotion is guilt because I'm not getting things done I think I should. Can you relate? I tried to push through and work on things but finally realized I was doing something to myself that I would never do to someone else. If I knew one of my family was not feeling well, I would tell them to rest and take it easy. Why not myself? Finally, I decided I would just rest and work on my cross stitch and watch my favorite British tv shows. I pulled out my bears and blocks project and worked on it.


It ended up being a productive day, just in a different way than I had envisioned. Plus, spending the day resting was really helpful in making me feel better the very next day. Even if I would have had to spend more than one day resting, that would have been okay. I realized that putting pressure on myself to achieve whatever goals I had in mind for that day, is counterproductive and that I need to listen to my body and mind.

We all work so hard in our lives but it's also good to rest. God rested on the seventh day after spending six days creating this amazing world and all that is in it. He set the example of showing us that we need rest. It's not a sin to rest (only to be lazy) and I do think I need to remember that it's okay to be kind and gentle with myself. Perhaps this is something you need to remember for youself, too.

Many blessings - Julie


2 comments:

  1. Thanks for the reminder Julie. Yes, I am hard on myself all the time.

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  2. Oh, I am SO sorry to hear that you are not feeling well, sweet friend. I haven't gotten to visit you much lately, so I must have missed where you posted about being ill. God bless you to feel better soon...I am glad you are being kind to yourself. NO one deserves it more. :)

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