Mary O’Malley – On my morning walk a few days ago, I saw a delightful bumper sticker that read, ‘Wag more. Bark less.’ I chuckled to myself and then I realized that we often use that idea to override ourselves – to expect ourselves to be different than what or who we are. While it is a good intention to have, if we don’t learn how to wag more and bark less with ourselves, we miss the point.
We are so used to barking at ourselves. We are conditioned to deny, change or just fall into our experiences. When we are angry, sad or scared, we usually get lost in the feeling or try to get away from it as fast as we can. In other words, we leave ourselves when we most need ourselves. We also have been deeply conditioned to judge ourselves. We ‘bark’ mean things to ourselves when we are the most vulnerable. If we talked to our friends the way we talk to ourselves, we wouldn’t have any friends!
One of the most healing things you can do is to learn how to love yourself exactly as you are. If you can touch yourself with kindness and compassion, even when you think you aren’t doing it ‘right,’ it will make a huge difference in your life. We are all a mixture of dark and light, and one of the most courageous things you can do (and one of the most healing for the world) is to embrace the entirety of yourself in your own heart.