Licensed clinical social worker Shari B. Kaplan explains that self-worth comes from accepting every part of yourself, including your wounded inner child. You don't have to feed every self-critical thought that appears. Instead, meet mistakes with kindness and extend compassion to the child you were who didn't know better.
Now, self-worth comes from learning to love and accept all parts of yourself. So sometimes this is really hard when you've been wounded as a child, that you don't really take the time to correct the thoughts that are in your head that aren't yours. People think that, many people think that if their brain has a thought, you're supposed to entertain it. Like, come on in, we're going to have dinner. Like, yeah, tell me more about this horrible thing and this really judgmental mental and critical thing about me that you want to tell me. It's like, no, you open the door and you say, yeah, that's not very kind and compassionate. Like, I made a mistake and mistakes happen, and when you learn from them, you do something different. Or, I was just a kid, how could I have known any better? And maybe you meet that child with compassion. But just because your brain fires off a thought doesn't mean you need to entertain every thought every time it comes knocking at door.
When Grief Feels Overwhelming: Finding Ground in Nature #mentalhealthawareness
