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| Photo by Thought Catalog. |
I had a couple of cool realizations over the past week.
First, I decided to try out a different online dating site (not the cool realization) and had to write a new description of myself for the platform. As I was writing about myself, I realized that, hey, I am pretty cool! If I were someone else, I would totally want to hang with me!
Obviously, this realization was based on a pretty biased text - I keep it positive in these things - but the world of online dating can pretty easily suck out your soul and replace it with self-doubt, so it's kind of amazing to have a moment in the midst of all that where I could simply appreciate the person who I am.
Second, I was writing a gratitude list the other night, at the end of it I had an urge to simply write, "I like my life."
This one feels even more significant: the first two months of 2019 shook up my whole life, and I feel like I only recently finished recalibrating to the changes. If I wanted to, I could pretty easily stay down on a life that took a major turn from where I thought it was headed, so what a lovely gift to have a moment of pure, unexpected appreciation for it instead.
Have you ever had a moment like this? A small flash of clarity where you see yourself or your life with unfettered appreciation? Whether or not you live under the heavy veils of depression, anxiety, and self-loathing, I think we all get bogged down with stress, comparison, aspirations, to-do lists, and day-to-day living and forget how awesome we really are.
The first time this happened for me I was 25 and generally hated myself. I was so taken by the brief feeling of self-love that it launched me into a quest to learn how to like myself on a regular basis (the results are documented in my book, Feeling Better: A Field Guide to Liking Yourself).
It also happens occasionally in that magical space right after I've finished working on something and before I can start criticizing it or when I've had one of those particularly perfect days with loving community.
These moments of pure appreciation are rare, but when they happen, one thing I have learned is to enjoy them while they last and remember them when they have passed.
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