Thursday 23 April 2015

The Confident Tree

Today my good friend listened to me rant about my life and how blah I’ve been feeling as of late. She sat there patiently drinking her coffee, smiling at me and waiting for me to finish my blabber.
I finally stopped to take a breath and she took the opportunity to respond. She started off with “Sam…you have no idea” and then continued to list every single piece of good I have in my life.

Honestly, I felt so uncomfortable. She kept going, positively reinforcing how lucky I am and how wonderful I have become till it got to the point when 
I sincerely didn’t know what to do with myself. Here I was sitting in front of a person telling me how awesome I am and all I could do was laugh nervously and sink into my chair.
I was uncomfortable because those words she spoke to me were words I don’t hear very often. They are words I shut down when they are spoken to me and they are words I definitely do not say to myself.
Can you remember the last time you gave yourself a pat on the back?
I can’t.
And what’s funny is if my friend had said that to me I would slap them and tell them how silly they were being.
Why is it so hard to accept that we are wonderful creatures? That we have so much good and that this good is truly deserved?
I still don’t believe it but I’m working on it. I think being thankful and maintaining happiness in ones life is so important and part of that means reminding ones self of how awesome they are.
I used to think it was selfish but I’m starting to see that maybe a little bit of selfishness is actually beneficial to ones health.
It’s something that will take time to root itself into my body though. Like any habit, you need to work at it to make it last. You need to plant the seed and water it everyday so that before too long it will grow into a tree so big you can’t even see the top.
I want to start lifting myself up. I want to start being more thankful and being happier with the life I have. I want to grow into a mighty tree that stands tall in confidence and respect for itself. I think I owe it to myself.

So give yourself a pat on the back today will you? You have achieved greatness and you are wonderful! 

Maybe we can work on believing in that together?

11 comments:

  1. ohmy Samantha! This post is precious. The images are beyond amazing but your words about how we should think more positive and stop being harsh at ourselves, believe in us and be happy is even more touching. I think that friend is truly a bless. Big hug!

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  2. this right here:
    "I want to start lifting myself up. I want to start being more thankful and being happier with the life I have. I want to grow into a mighty tree that stands tall in confidence and respect for itself. I think I owe it to myself"
    SO MUCH YES.
    thank you for writing this post.
    for having coffee with your friend and feeling uncomfortable, then turning that discomfort into reflection.
    we do need to pat ourselves on the back more often - we can be our biggest enemy or our best cheerleader (yes, horrible cliche)

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  3. I always take SO much from the words you share, Sam - seriously, it's an absolute honour to be on the receiving end of such beauty. You write so wonderfully, and today's subject matter is so close to my heart, it's as though - in lifting your own, by sharing what you did, you lifted mine, too. And I'm thankful. So thankful.

    And you are brilliant. A superb talent. Someone with so much to give. Never forget that <3

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  4. Thanks for posting! It's so hard to be comfortable with your coolness, haha. Most of the time I think I'm pretty cool, but I'm always "worrying" if other people think so too... Which is silly! I'm cool enough for me :)

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  5. Thanks for this post! You're so right, it's so hard to accept all the lovely things about yourself even though God has made us this way (so we should be ok with that). Definitely something worth learning this year!

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  6. Such lovely photos! I also think it's super important to step back and see how far you've come and give yourself that pat on the back - focus on all the little accomplishments and scary things we've gone through to get to where we our now :)

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  7. Great post Sam. I've been talking to friends recently about similar topics and have found that they really are kind of struggling in this area - they struggle with having confidence and contentment within themselves. Luckily I don't have that problem as I've spent six years working on myself without any distractions from anyone and have now found those things, but like you I shut down whenever anyone says nice things to me or about me. It's extremely rare that I hear anything that makes me feel that way (I think the lat time I did it was my therapist last year which says quite a lot).

    This may sound weird but I really do think all people in their early twenties would benefit form at least a couple of months of therapy - I've stopped seeing mine now but I saw her for about 18 months and have changed so much and have let go of a lot of pain because of her. Being in your twenties is really hard and I think we all need someone to kind of show us the good and unique things about ourselves so we know what strengths we're working with.

    I always go off topic whenever I leave comments on your posts. Sorry!

    Erin
    beingerin.com

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  8. It's so true that we all need to be a little selfish. It's not up yourself to think you're awesome or to accept all your wonderful qualities. We all have something special about ourselves and we need a little self confidence to be happy. Thanks for reminding us of that x

    -M
    The Life of Little Me

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  9. I think I'm crying.... *grabs a tissue*.... one second.... *blowing nose noises*.... there.

    That was beautiful:)

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  10. I think about this a lot in a sense of my negative to positive self-talk. How many positive things do I think about myself per every negative? On a good day, maybe 2:10. And what would happen in my life if I adjusted that so that I was thinking at least as many positive as I do negative? I feel like this is a key to a lot of good things. accepting compliments, accepting love, accepting that you're worthy of love - for some reason it's tough stuff. I'm going to try some affirmations. I was doing those every morning for a while and they seemed to really energize me. Let us know what you figure out!

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  11. Yes! Self love is what I want to hear!
    I think you're great Sam because you ARE great. And so am I.
    Woo!

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