Healing and Hypnotherapy Volume 4 Issue- 10, 1 April 2020 | Page 20

The more clarity you have, the more you will be able to support and stick up
for yourself.
2. Be your own best friend
Are you your own mortal enemy? If most of us spoke to others the way we
spoke to ourselves, we would have no friends! You are with yourself 24 hours
a day, 365 days a year. You are with yourself through all the glory and all the
pain. Doesn’t it make sense to be best friends with yourself? Wouldn’t that
make your life so much easier?
To practice self-love, it is important for us to consciously change our
relationships with ourselves, and treat ourselves with compassion and
consideration just as we would with a best friend.
So my question for you is this: how close are you with yourself? Do you give
yourself pep talks as a best friend would? Do you treat yourself to fun and
exciting activities you love? Are you there to hold your own hand when things
get messy? If your answer is “no” or “rarely” or even “sometimes” it’s time to
do things differently. Explore what it feels like being your own best friend.
What one activity can you do this week that honours this philosophy?
3. Change the way you perceive your flaws
As spiritual teacher Jeff Foster puts it:
Don’t judge your sadness, your depression, your feelings of unworthiness so
quickly, and don’t judge the sorrows of another, for you really don’t know
what’s best for anyone, for you really don’t know more than life itself. That
which you reject (in another or in yourself) may actually be much-needed
medicine, a misunderstood teacher, inviting you to a self-love deeper than
you ever thought possible. It may be a threshold guardian, a gatekeeper of a
forgotten kingdom
!
Instead of seeing our guilt, jealousy, anger, fear, and sadness as a terrible
curse, see them as opportunities to grow. Realise that  everyone  struggles
with these universal human emotions. We ALL feel insecure at times, and
that’s perfectly OK
.
I remember how difficult it was for me to change the way I perceived my
imperfection. Every time someone pointed out a flaw of mine or criticised me
in any way, I would feel depressed, angry, and defensive. One day, my
partner said, “Instead of getting all sad and mopey, why not see this as
an opportunity to grow?” To be honest, I wanted to punch him in the face right