A place with no judgment

I think everyone should have at least one person in whom they can confide, knowing that person will offer advice or concern but never judgment. It's important that we have those people in our lives with whom we can be ourselves- unfiltered, unedited- knowing we will be accepted for who we are, even though we are not perfect.

And yet, often the person from whom we get the harshest criticism is ourselves. We regret past decisions, we berate ourselves for our actions, we despair at our inability to stay perfectly on track at all times. We judge ourselves most critically for our past mistakes. But maybe it's time to work on that. Maybe instead of trying to perfect our parenting or our diets or our exercise programs, we should instead be working to silence our inner critic. Maybe it's time, right here, today, to start realizing that when we accept ourselves for everything that we are and everything that we are not- just as we do with our friends- maybe that's the best gift we can give ourselves.

We are our constant companion. We are the only one who truly understands who we are, and where we've been and we we should love ourselves for all of it. As grateful as we are for our friends who love us, we should be just as grateful that have ourselves to rely on and ourselves to nurture and sustain us and ourselves to tell us that we are just fine just the way we are. Maybe we can look in the mirror today and be grateful for who is looking back at us. Maybe the best gift we can give ourselves today is acceptance and compassion.

After all, this is the life.
- a

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