Day 89- It's Not You, It's Me

It’s Not You, It’s Me

Today I had a big point open up when I thought I was confronting someone about possibly judging me. ‘Confronting’ might not be the right word, because I actually was speaking my back chat or internal voice, in order to ‘put it out there’ to be discussed, because I couldn’t see clearly what I was missing. First of all, I know damn well that worrying about what another is thinking is always me projecting myself onto another. But I was SOOOO convinced that it was the person making me feel bad because of what they ‘might have’ been thinking. So I said that, and the person did NOT accept this shit from me. Normally I would have argued and defended myself, but because I have been practicing self-honesty and listening/hearing, I shut up within myself and listened to the other person’s perspective.  

 What I realized is that this has been a pattern play-out in my life for a really long time. It is self-judgment, wherein over time I have seemingly small, judgmental thoughts about myself, like, oh, my nails look bad, I’m gaining weight, I slept in too late, I didn’t get enough done today, etc… and then I start feeling insecure, and then I’ll start projecting the judgment, by thinking little things like, “I should put this away or he’ll think I’m lazy,” “these pants are too frumpy, he’ll think I’m sloppy,” “I should do more or she’ll think I didn’t get much done today,” etc… Then, when the person is in my midst, I’ll think they are thinking these things about me, and get super self-conscious, but they are not even thinking these things! I would have to be a mind-reader to know the thoughts of another, and anyways- what would it matter what another is possibly thinking? It doesn’t. This all seems really obvious now as I write it, but throughout my life, I have done so many things for fear of what the other ‘might’ think. Sometimes I have had entire relationships in which I have been entirely dictated by this pattern to the point where I don’t even want to be around the person anymore. And because it seems so real to me, I never realized that the judgment was coming from ME, not the other person!

            So, the point that opened up within these realizations is just how judgmental I actually am towards myself. I have an extremely high, even unreasonable standard that I hold myself to, where if I do not achieve perfection, I judge me. So I’m really hard on myself in this way. I’m not even what’s called a ‘type-A personality’, because the way it manifests for me is defeat- wherein I just end up mostly giving up and feeling like “what’s the point- it’s unobtainable- it’s too much work- etc..” which is an attitude that just perpetuates the self-judgment, because I then end up doing less than I am able.

            Within all this, I see that I have to be more gentle with myself, so that I can function from a starting point of self-care and self-consideration, so that I can actually be more effective, and also be able to be and express myself and enjoy the people I spend time with.

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to judge myself.

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to believe and participate in my backchat and self-talk to the point where it influences who and how I am.

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed backchat and negative self-talk to exist within and as me, wherein I, throughout the day, make positive or negative judgments about myself in relation to others and the world, thus defining myself as ‘good; and ‘bad’ within my mind, and then confirming my judgments constantly and continuously through/by projecting my self-judgments onto the behavior of others.

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to project my backchat and negative self-talk onto others in my life and world, because it influences who I am around others wherein I am trying to control their perception of me and thus, my perception of myself, instead of changing myself actually, and BEING who I am instead of perceiving who I am in relation to people, places, things, and events outside of me.

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to blame others for ‘judging me and making me feel bad’, instead of seeing, realizing and understanding that I have only been judging myself and being unreasonable with my standards and expectations of myself.

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to abdicate my responsibility to myself by projecting my self-judgment onto others, and instead of changing I avoided the other, or tried endlessly to ‘be perfect’ in order to not be judged.

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to define ‘being perfect’ as not feeling judged by others, because I see, realize and understand that the mind will constantly and continuously judge unless it is directed with awareness.

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to not define ‘being perfect’ as being aware of myself and that which I create, and directing myself and that which I create according to the principle of doing unto others as myself, and being one and equal to myself.

            To me, this character seems like a ‘people pleaser’, so I will take apart and forgive this character in my next blog.