This is so true!

A friend shared this photo from www.marcandangel.com. It is so easy to get sucked into negative self-talk, but maybe we should try treating ourselves the way we treat our friends – with support, understanding, and love.

Making Mistakes and Forgiving Yourself

I hate it when I make a mistake! The day is going along nice and calm and then the stomach churning feeling when you realize you’ve made a mistake, rolls in. The feeling reminds me of our recent fishing trip – it was beautiful when we started out, but when the dark clouds started coming they were moving faster than our boat could take us to shore.

How quickly our day can change when we start getting down on ourselves! Why do we do that? Mistakes are a part of life. Sometimes we do them accidentally, and sometimes we choose something and it turns out…maybe we should have chosen the other thing.  

The most important thing is what we do after we’ve realized we made a mistake. Sulk? Cry? Yell? Say “I’m so stupid!”? We get down on ourselves and then we take it out on other people, then we feel bad, and get down on ourselves again. It can be a never ending circle unless you find a way to forgive yourself.

One of the best things someone said to me when I’ve been down about making a mistake is this: “I probably make 100 mistakes every day, and you know what, the sun still comes up in the morning”.  Or as Dori from Finding Nemo would say, “Just keep swimming, just keep swimming…”

If it’s a big mistake, think about what you can do to make it right. Be honest, forgive others, make a plan if you need to, talk about it with someone you trust, and above all, forgive yourself. You are not stupid, or bad, or any of the other things you may be telling yourself.

Mistakes can help us make better decisions in the future, and they can help us understand and support our friends when they’re in the same situation.

“Show me a person who has never made a mistake and I’ll show you somebody who has never achieved much.”          – Joan Collins

Don’t Forget Your Sunscreen!

I’m sure you’re tired of being told “Wear suncsreen”…”Reapply your sunscreen”… “You can’t go out without putting on sunscreen”…but the people who tell you that nag you about it for a very good reason. That reason is:

Melanoma 

This is the name of the most serious type of skin cancer. It develops in the cells that produce melanin — the cells that give your skin its color. The exact cause of it isn’t known, but being in the sun or going to tanning beds – being exposed to ultraviolet (UV) radiation – increases your chances of getting it. 

How To Untrain A Bully

Have you ever felt like this? Like any excitement or good things or fun you felt as you started your day had been sucked away, and there you were, feeling faded and fragile. Bullies can do that to us. A single comment, look, or action can make us feel bad, but a trademark of bullies is the continued comments, looks, or actions that make us feel bad every day, leaving us wilted like a flower without sun or fresh water.

Traditionally it was thought most kids who bully do it because they’re insecure or just not very smart. When your parents were kids they were probably told to ignore bullies, or that bullying was just something kids had to deal with growing up. Do your parents tell you that? If they do, it may be because that’s what they were told.

Although some bullies may be insecure, that’s not always the case. Most people who bully want to feel in control, whether it’s because they don’t feel control in other areas of their life or they feel power over other people will help them climb the social ladder. One way bullies choose to get this feeling of control is to try to control other people’s emotions; and sometimes the person they pick is you.

If some time in your life, that person IS you, here is one thing you can do: