Not only do I abuse myself verbally, but my greatest fault of all is food. I use to abuse my body every single night when I came home from work. It would be late at night, I would be extremely stressed out and tired, yet I would sit in the kitchen for hours eating peanut butter toast like nobodies business. I would tell myself I deserved it, I had a rough day and all. The the spiral would continue and I would feel worse from ruining all the healthy food and exercise choices I had made earlier in the day. The worst part... I deserved it, I would tell myself. I knew what I really deserved was to better myself. If I really respected and loved myself I would not trash it every night with unhealthy bingeing. I realized every night how much I really must hate myself, that I could not overcome the urge to constantly hurt my body. "You can do better tomorrow" a slight glimmer of hope would tell myself every night as I lay feeling sick, although, tomorrow usually wasn't better.
During the juice cleanse I resisted any evening snacking, but since going back to "normal" food again I find myself going back to my old ways. To really love ourselves we respect every part of our being. That means no abuse in any form whether that be self-talk, cutting, starving, bingeing, etc. That's why I thought I should start every morning with a mantra. A mantra is basically just repeated words or phrases. In my case something positive. The more you say something the more you start to believe it. When I graduated nursing school I had post-its around the house saying "You will pass the NCLEX the first time" and you bet I did. I intend to use the same theory to change my inner voice. Change my self-talk to positivity and self love.
Feel free to join me. I intend to use the same mantra for a week, putting the mantra on my bathroom or vanity mirror so I see it every morning and repeat it to myself. This mantra I created is intended to aid my self awareness and create a better love of my body to avoid destructive behaviors such as bingeing.
Do you use mantras to self-empower? What mantras do you repeat to yourself? Hope everyone has a wonderful Monday and a great week.
