[success]I am beginning to measure myself in strength, not pounds. Sometimes in smiles. ~ Laurie Halse Anderson[/success]
There’s no doubt in my mind…whatever you think about yourself is really, really important. And now you’re either going to be saying, duh, no kidding or asking why the heck would it make any difference what I think about myself.
That wise woman, my mum, used to say that my self concept, or the image I had of myself, would keep me anchored in the same spot and no amount of rising tides would lift my boat.
It went in one ear and out the other for a long time.
I didn’t really care for boats anyway.
Recently I was reminded of my mum as I was talking to a mother of two children under the age of four. Neither of those two facts have any bearing on the matter in hand whatsoever…as far as I can tell…just a bit of background information, which might come in handy for something, some day.
Meantime we were discussing the fact that she didn’t want to get some new jeans until she’s lost at least ten pounds. Before you run away with the idea that she’s a heavy woman…she’s not. So what’s going on here? You might very well ask.
We definitely needed a course correction
Her ship was way off beam. Forgive me if that’s not a nautical term…as mentioned before…not too interested in boats.
For some reason, at some point in time this woman had created this particular image of who she was. Maybe she had looked at a magazine and decided she wasn’t a size zero, or somewhere in her distant past she had accepted an idea about her size from someone else…I don’t know…it could be anything.
We put all sorts of rubbish into our imagination that isn’t helpful.
What is helpful is to know that your self image is not really a reflection of who you are, its a determiner. You will always act and be, consistent with who and what you THINK you are, not necessarily who and what you ACTUALLY are.
Our self image, self concept, call it what you like has been created by us.
Its not caused by outer reality but by judgement of ourselves.
We have interpreted events/experiences and decided something about ourselves that we then continue to think and so this interpretation of who we are becomes a self fulfilling prophecy.
It might be in the arena of success, or love, or financial freedom, or health or happiness, or as in this case a perception of how we look.
Time to forget the question – who am I – better that we now ask ourselves who do I choose to be, because we know we will become whatever we consistently think about ourselves.
At the risk of repeating myself, it’s the laws of life operating and they’re no respecter of persons.
Life always responds to us according to our energy vibration and our self image is part of our consciousness, so part of our vibration.
The really good news is it’s all a temporary reality
And it’s anchored in place by our thoughts, so it doesn’t matter what the outer world currently tells you. It doesn’t matter that you’ve interpreted past events as you being no good at this, or can’t do that, or not successful, or whatever you tell yourself you are, that is less than brilliant. We all have unlimited power at our disposal, because our thoughts are real forces and we are always who we consistently think we are. We can always and at any time expand what we think is possible.
Choose wisely grasshopper…and go and buy those great new jeans.
Encourage one another.
Love Elle
xoxo
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10 Comments
Our inner personal master measurement of a sense of purpose is responsible for our greatest triumphs, and also our greatest defeats. Another excellently observed post, Elle :0)
I love your observations Steven…thanks for sharing. 🙂
Love this: we become what we consistently tell ourselves we are. Like the question- who do I Choose to be?
Once again, I’m so impressed with your Mum – how insightful and enlightened she was in raising you.
Who we think we are is so key. If we think differently and change our internal tapes, we will be different.
Thanks for another insightful and poignant post.
And thank you Harriet for the loving words you share. You inspire me. 🙂
“Choice” is No 1…choose what you think, who you are, what you do etc,…that’s where it all hinges
be good to yourself Elle,
David
You are so right David. It’s easy to forget we have a choice when we’re caught up in our experiences.
Hi Elle,
I find this to be so true: “Life always responds to us according to our energy vibration”. I know the good news is that we can always raise our vibration right where we are, regardless of external, regardless of our previous thoughts and experiences. It is a choice to do so. Thank you for this lovely affirmation:)
Thank you Joy. I always love to hear recognition that we are always at choice…even though it can be tough to pull ourselves out of the rabbit hole on occasions. 🙂
So true!!!
I think you know this stuff pretty well Brenda!