Just the Way You Are

Where you are is perfectly fine.  What you have done in the past is perfectly fine.  Most importantly, who you are is more than perfectly fine.

Stop beating yourself up.  Start loving yourself.

Everything you've done in the past is just that.  The past.  You did the best you could with what you had and what you knew.

Everyday is a new day, a chance to begin again.  Forgive yourself for whatever imperfections you believe about yourself.  Strive to do better each day.

What I'm saying may sound like a fairy tale right now to you.  Something that you think you'll never be able to accept.  The more you practice the concepts of recovery, the easier they become.

But first please forgive yourself.  Just do it.  I promise you're nowhere near as horrible as you think you are.  Not even close.  I used to tell my therapist horror stories about my past, trying to get her to see how bad a person I was.  She wouldn't play my game.  She wouldn't agree with me.

Instead she told me, "Kelly, you did the best you could.  Now you're learning new ways to cope.  Forgive yourself.  I'm not going to join you in gaining up on you and your past."  She was also the first person who ever told me that I was fine just the way I was.  I didn't have to be smarter, prettier, or Lord knows, thinner to be a better person.  I was fine just being me.

So now I'm telling you:  You are fine just the way you are!!!!!!  Believe it!  Live it!