“Being happy is a very personal thing and it really has nothing to do with anyone else.” – Abraham
Even when we’re severely damaged or hurt our happiness still depends on us, as impossible as it may seem, it is still possible.
How?
If we’ve been severely damaged or hurt we’ve shut down many of our pleasure receptors or the ability to feel positive feelings, out of our survival mechanism to try to avoid more hurt or pain.
To switch the survival mechanisms off we need to work on our own inner healing.
As weird as this may sound, trying to delve in-depth into raw pain at this point would be counter-productive because there’s no reserves of positivity built up yet.
Teaching ourselves to love ourselves
From my own experience of healing from abuse, I discovered that my self-loathing was a product of the years of abuse I had endured, and this was blocking me from feeling anything positive about myself and consequently my life.
My inner damage was better dealt with when I methodically set out to teach myself to first like myself and later I progressed to being able to love myself.
Teaching ourselves to love our self is possible, we just need to start slowly.
Accepting ourselves and suspending judgement
When I decided to just suspend judgement of myself in order to be able to accept myself, right now where I am, (and not where that negative inner voice demanded I be) I discovered the first glimmering of hope – that I could do this!
That negative inner voice is a result of the abuse which has been internalized, for the pretzel-logic of our brains processed the lies we were told (verbally and by how we were treated) to rationalize the abuse that we were deserving of the terrible treatment we received.
The internalized negativity created a powerful mechanism which dominated our brains and which drowned out any positive inner feelings, because they didn’t fit in with the rationalized narrative our brains had created in order to survive.
Step 1: Realize the lies aren’t real!
Step 2: Actively work on suspending judgment, even if it is achievable just for short bursts in the beginning.
Step 3: Start speaking kindly to yourself!
Step 4: Keep getting back up, dusting yourself off and keep working on suspending judgement and speaking kind words!
How to speak kindly to yourself
When I started to try to speak kindly to myself, anything I tried to say sounded fake and very unreal.
So, I had to start from an even gentler place and focus my thoughts on one or two positive quotes.
In the beginning of this process, my favorite one was:
Always believe that something wonderful is about to happen,
Start slowly and keep trying. You can do this!
You have more strength than you know and you will heal, thrive and become ready to step into your new inner space you create for yourself!
You have a right to be happy! You deserve to be happy! The universe loves you and wants you to be happy!
I’m sharing more post which may be helpful for you:
- 10 Steps to Owning Our Happiness
- Setting “Boundaries with consequences”
- Making a change… “How do I take that first step?”
- Affirmation: Today is a new day! I can do this!
- As we practice being gentle and kind with ourselves, we actually help to speed the process of helping our lives become more positive!
- Always believe that wonderful things can happen!
- A healthy outside starts from the inside!
- Brain Rewiring
More good stuff:
Teaching ourselves to like, even to love ourselves
By changing our inner dialogue, we change EVERYTHING!
Red Ocean or Blue Ocean? How do you think?
An answer to dealing with the Inner Critic!
My top 10 most viewed posts, plus a few bonuses!
A helpful trick to be able to overcome negatively Comparing Ourselves to others…
Do you only accept yourself if you look a certain way?
Please go to my Archived Posts page to find more wonderful posts to check out!
Blessings!
Thank you for sharing this post and for following me!
Tamara
https://tamarakulish.com/ Archived Posts: https://tamarakulish.com/archived-posts/
My books: Developing Happiness When You Can’t Find It and How to Heal Your Life on a Deep Heart Level are available in paperback and Kindle. Audio book available!
Guided Journals help you work on a particular issue by answering questions to help see patterns and to find solutions:
Removing Inner Blocks, Anger Journal, Guided Anxiety Journal Joy & Mindfulness Journal My Boundaries Journal My Inner Thoughts Journal
Thanks for buying my books on Amazon!
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Tamara Kulish 