I believe in me

This week I needed to do this exercise inspired by Pennebaker en Seagal (1999) the only instructions we had were from their article:

About an assigned topic for four consecutive days for 15 minutes each day. The only rule about the writing assignment was that once they began writing, they were to continue to do so without stopping without regard to spelling, grammar, or sentence structure.
Pennebaker en Seagal (1999, p. 1244)

So that is what I did, I wrote about my feelings. We talked about who we are (and how others see us) and who we want to be. With that in mind, I wrote about my self-image.

My teacher said something beautiful when we talked through the assignment. If you only focus on how you can improve all the time, you will never be happy. Because when you focus on improvement you will be improving until you pass away. Which is something that made me think. I am one of those people who always looks at what I can and need to do better. But looking at the world and in turn yourself that way. It doesn’t leave you satisfied.

I learned a few things when I was doing this assignment :

Sometimes working your way through something is good, even though it is hard
When you look back at an experience you might find that you don’t carry those negative emotions anymore
Sometimes writing your thoughts dissolves the issue
When there is space, there is space for love
You need to believe in yourself

You are your own worst critic which is a given, but this doesn’t mean you can’t also be your own greatest lover. Your own best supporter. Your biggest supporter. You can and should believe in you. Standing still to things in your life that are good. I truly believe that is the place where you will grow. I think that seeing the good in your life is how you can become a happier person. And happy people are the best people. I suppose that is why most of us focus all our energy on improving.

Because improving means becoming better and being better means being happier. Or at least that is how most people think. This isn’t true so I suppose a different view of who we are and who we want to be can be powerful. Maybe it isn’t even who we need or should be, but who we could be. And maybe that is enough.

Lots of love,

Melissa