I felt inadequate & “not good enough”

Posted by admin in Blog (Weekly), Blogs      1 comment

Nov
7

My son, Tim, has been on the self-improvement and spiritual path for 12 years and is a Life Coach from Boise, Idaho. He recently invited me to be a part of a powerful online group process called “Self-Love, Self-Acceptance and Self Appreciation.”  He designed it to bring people together to share their power with one another for a greater cause other than their own individual use.  What a delight it is for me to be a part of this group and witness my son’s  teaching about self-love.  There is no greater joy for a mother than to see her children live their lives fully and making a difference in the world. I am truly blessed and grateful for my children and who they have become and what they bring into the world.

I have been on this journey of self-love for many years and I believe it is the foundation for everything. When I love myself, I will know how to truly love others.  It is important to me because I didn’t love myself growing up and wasn’t taught how to love myself.  It was very confusing because I was told I was conceited as a young girl. Coming from an alcoholic home, I was starving for love and looked outside of myself and in all the wrong places for it. I didn’t know that the love I was so desperately craving was inside of me all the time.  I looked to others for approval, to love me and tell me I was o.k.

I have heard that LIFE (and the people in our lives) is like a classroom and we are always learning lessons.  I believe each lesson is like an “awakening” to see the truth and to set me free to live the life I am called to live as a child of God.  It is like peeling an onion and we keep going deeper and deeper into ourselves to see the truth of who we are.

After years of practicing self-love, I wasn’t expecting to have such a powerful “awakening” after our first “Self-love, Self-acceptance and Self -Appreciation” call.  Spirit didn’t waste any time because that night something “showed up” with Larry that I needed to process.

Larry and I love to dance and we have great chemistry together, for the most part! He has been learning some new difficult dance steps and was trying to teach them to me on the dance floor.  Not a good idea because I had no idea what he was doing and tried to follow him to the best of my ability. I could see the look in his eyes and the frustration on his face when I screwed it up royally. I have always had pride in myself for being a great follower.  But, I wasn’t following him and started to feel “inadequate” and judged myself to be “not good enough.” Needless to say, I wasn’t in a good mood when we left the dance.

I was quiet at first when we got in the car because I didn’t want to just dump on him. He knew something was up and turned to me and said, “I love you, Sparkle.”  I then decided to share my feelings and communicate because being quiet was an “old behavior” and it didn’t feel very good.

After I shared my feelings of “inadequacy” about my dancing with him, he immediately apologized for being a “jerk” and took responsibility for his actions.  He said, “It’s not you, it’s me and my ego. I am frustrated because I cannot remember the steps I have been learning so I haven’t been able to lead you. I know that is unfair to you and I am sorry.”

Wow, I wasn’t expecting that admission from him because I judged myself and thought it was my fault.  We talked for quite a while in the car and I felt better when I left. The next day, while journaling and in prayer, some awareness came up for me about my lack of self-love and acceptance.  I spent the day going within to process what happened and what I want and don’t want in our dancing experience. I wrote 7 pages in my journal and gained clarity about how I have internalized and allowed what others think of me and how they treat me to be the barometer of how I judge and treat myself. Larry was frustrated with himself (and me) because he couldn’t remember the steps he learned and I wasn’t following him.  I took on his frustration and assumed it meant that I was inadequate and “not good enough.”

If my self-love and acceptance was at 100% (which no one’s is,) I would have realized in the moment that it was his frustration and that I didn’t need to buy into it & create and my own story.  Feeling inadequate and “not good enough” are old core beliefs that reared their ugly head-again! I forgave myself and wrote a gratitude list.

The truth is it’s about me and how I treat and love myself. I cannot control how others treat me, but I can control how I love, accept and appreciate myself.  Through this experience, I was able to give myself the love, acceptance and appreciation that I have craved from others.  What a gift and opportunity to see the truth and to see how I have grown and learned to communicate and get my needs met. I felt so empowered after Larry and I discussed what I will and will not do on the dance floor! And the best part is we had a fantastic time on the dance floor this Saturday night.