Should you have known better Be nicer to yourself

Should you have known better Be nicer to yurselfShould you have known better Be nicer to yourselfOn a scale of one to ten, how hard are you on yourself?When you say the wrong thing, do you shrug it off or freak out completely?When you make a misstep, do you beat yourself up or do you look lovingly at the woman who made that choice?When youre feeling like crap, do you let yourself feel that way or do you make it worse by expecting it suddenly to be better?Why is it so hard to give ourselves a dang break? Why is it so hard to treat ourselves with the same compassion that we provide to those that we love. Wed never talk to our favorite people the way we talk to ourselves. And goodness do I wish it was as easy at just being our own favorite person (which for the record, I think is one of the single greatest attempts at progress you can make in your life. To like yourself. To really like yourself.)When I get really down on myself for making that mistake for elend learning the lesson fo r being in a behavioral pattern for not seeing my own value for not using my voice for (insert any of the million reasons were hard on ourselves), it all comes back to a falsely-rooted expectation that I should have known better.But if we had known better, wouldnt we have done better? And isnt the whole point of living this wild life journey that were on to learn the lessons that life is here to teach us?You arent supposed to know the answers to all the questions already. Youre not supposed to have mastered all the lessons. Youre not supposed to get it all right. Youre not supposed to have this living thing aced. That is simply not the point. And not how it works.Human existence is predicated on the experience of learning. Of absorbing. Or lessoning. Of expanding. Of starting somewhere. And youre starting here. So is it possible to quit being such a total ass hole to yourself by acknowledging that your knowledge and your humanity isnt static? Its here to grow. Youre here to learn the lessons. Youre here to find your answers. Youre here to get better. Youre here to expand. So have some compassion for yourself, because core to any of that knowledge is not knowing it already.Give yourself a much-needed break. Let yourself off the hook. Quit being so mean. Youll find that wrapping yourself in just a little bit of grace is enough to make this entire journey of living thing much, much more enjoyable.Thisarticlewas originally published on MaxieMcCoy.com.