A few days ago, I came across this IGTV by Mel Robbins. She was talking about an exciting study*. The study showed the number one thing that you can do to make a positive difference in your life.
Accepting yourself as you are.
Not surprisingly, accepting yourself as you are made the biggest difference.
They looked at all kinds of different things that you could do in the area of self-help. For example, exercising, practicing gratitude, eating healthy, hanging out with positive people, getting out into nature, or journaling practice.
Being kind to ourselves is probably the thing that people in the self-help industry talk the least about. We’re encouraged to do all these things from kale smoothies to cold showers, but nobody talks about the importance of how we treat ourselves.
When it comes to how we treat ourselves, it seems to be about things that we do, like take a bubble bath and burn incense.
But being kind to ourselves and accepting ourselves is an inside job. It’s how we talk to ourselves. If I take the bubble bath, but tell myself at the same time that I’m lazy and that I should have finished the project proposal, I won’t reap the benefits.
* According to Mel Robbins, the study was conducted by Dr. Karen Pine at the University of Hertfordshire in the UK. As she didn’t mention the study’s title, I haven’t found the actual study. But I found this article that talks about the study.