Are you in an abusive relationship with yourself - part 3?
So far we explored verbal and physical abuse -
This week, let's look at emotional or psychological abuse.
Do you judge and criticise yourself for feeling normal emotions like anger, sadness, jealousy, etc? saying things like, i am a bad person to feel this way.
This is psychological abuse, or gaslighting behaviour where we take normal responses and make them wrong, In this way, we make ourselves feel wrong or bad - the notion of original sin is based on this. We are flawed and deserve to suffer. This is what I call making a misery sandwich.. a nice big juicy misery sandwich. Adding more pain to the pain I am already feeling.
But, how can we grow in love, kindness and compassion when we hate the person we are, the person who I live with 24/7 until my last breath?
Notice when you have emotional responses, and assess if they are appropriate in the context. Rather than judging and condemning yourself for feeling the way that you do, bring in compassion for the suffering. Hold yourself as you would your young child feeling this pain. Emotions are like weather patterns - some are unpleasant, others are pleasant. But they are always passing systems.