Gratitude: Positive Reflections from Others
I figured I should balance out the wish in my last personal post with some gratitude. Not that I'm trying to deny my wish or say that making it isn't an acceptable use of time/energy/words, but gratitude is also important, also a good use of time/energy/words, and also something I want to both feel for myself and put out into the world.
One of the prompts in the soul limber exercise of The Desire Map workbook section is, "Light and heavy: This brings me alive, enlivens me, reminds me of who I am." One of the things I wrote down was "positive reflections from others." Some examples of that:
On a day when I was feeling like I wasn't being my best self, I posted some sort of being a better person inspirational quote to Facebook. One of my friends commented on it and said I was a reminder to him to be a better person.
I kept thinking I wasn't being supportive or loving enough to one of my friends, and then she told me I'm a great friend.
I always think it takes me a while to get to know people and that I'm slow to open up, and then I got a holiday card from a new fannish friend who said she appreciated how open I was to making new friends.
I felt very vulnerable with my last personal entry, and then people commented on it and said I was brave for putting it out there, and also commented on how much I really do this kind of personal development work.
I think one of the big life lessons all of those instances is something I've been thinking about in this whole inquiry into my soul process: how I see myself, how other people see me, and how I think other people see me are three different (and only sometimes overlapping) things. (Unanswered question: where does who I actually am fit into that?) This is part of what I appreciate about those positive reflections: they remind me of something else I wrote down in the soul limber exercises: I can be warmer and more loving than I think. They're also, of course, positive attention being paid to me (yay!) and reminders that other people see and love me. Thank you to everyone who has reflected myself back to me like this.
One more example that doesn't fit the pattern of the previous four:
My brother and his girlfriend K were in town recently (they moved about five hours away in December), so we had family dinner at my parents' house. When I got there, K said to me, "You look good. You look really happy." That's definitely in the top five best compliments I've ever gotten.
One of the prompts in the soul limber exercise of The Desire Map workbook section is, "Light and heavy: This brings me alive, enlivens me, reminds me of who I am." One of the things I wrote down was "positive reflections from others." Some examples of that:
On a day when I was feeling like I wasn't being my best self, I posted some sort of being a better person inspirational quote to Facebook. One of my friends commented on it and said I was a reminder to him to be a better person.
I kept thinking I wasn't being supportive or loving enough to one of my friends, and then she told me I'm a great friend.
I always think it takes me a while to get to know people and that I'm slow to open up, and then I got a holiday card from a new fannish friend who said she appreciated how open I was to making new friends.
I felt very vulnerable with my last personal entry, and then people commented on it and said I was brave for putting it out there, and also commented on how much I really do this kind of personal development work.
I think one of the big life lessons all of those instances is something I've been thinking about in this whole inquiry into my soul process: how I see myself, how other people see me, and how I think other people see me are three different (and only sometimes overlapping) things. (Unanswered question: where does who I actually am fit into that?) This is part of what I appreciate about those positive reflections: they remind me of something else I wrote down in the soul limber exercises: I can be warmer and more loving than I think. They're also, of course, positive attention being paid to me (yay!) and reminders that other people see and love me. Thank you to everyone who has reflected myself back to me like this.
One more example that doesn't fit the pattern of the previous four:
My brother and his girlfriend K were in town recently (they moved about five hours away in December), so we had family dinner at my parents' house. When I got there, K said to me, "You look good. You look really happy." That's definitely in the top five best compliments I've ever gotten.