Appreciation Instead of Criticism

I realized that I was raised with constant criticism, and that became my habit.

Now that I am aware of this, I am consciously changing it to appreciation.

Criticism induces a feeling of tightness and fear.

Appreciation gives us room to expand and relax in a safe atmosphere.

By changing my awareness to operate in this different way, I am interpreting things that happen to me differently.

Where once I would feel threatened by a remark and feel pushed to the outside, now I see the remark as an expression of the way the other person is feeling.

Since I didn’t create the feeling, I do not have to run from it or react to it in any other way.

I can simply make the observation to myself and let it go at that.

I am appreciating myself and the things that I do.

I am reminding myself that it is perfectly OK for me to do things the way that I choose to do them.

I am letting myself do things on my own timetable.

I do not have to answer to someone else’s deadline or even to their sense of how long it is proper for something to take.

I am becoming comfortable with who I am, because I no longer have to meet someone else’s version of my life.

I am able to give others room to be who they are because they do not have to meet my version of their lives.

This appreciation thing is pretty cool.

It gives all of us room to live the way we interpret life, the way we see it from our own individual viewpoints.

© 2017 Kathryn Hardage

www.lovedcherishedadored.blogspot.com