How to be a good friend to yourself. (With footnotes.)

I know that not everyone needs to know how to not be their own enemy. I’m glad about this.

But for those of you who find it easier to be kind to every single person in the world than to be decent to yourself, or those who just want to hear more about being friendly to yourself, here’s a little list, with footnotes down below.

1. Don’t hate yourself. Sometimes this is harder than it should be, but it’s an important first step. Do you hate the baby birds in that nest over there? Do you hate donkeys? Do you hate sweet-cheeked babies? No? Then don’t hate yourself, silly. *

2. Walk with yourself. Hey there, this is a good pace. We’re doing great today. We love this. †

3. Spend time in your own head, rather than trying to guess the thoughts of others. Lately, when Gertrude the Anxiety Dragon would like to carry me over into the imagined mental processes of people around me, I tell her a firm no. “That’s not my head, Gertrude. I don’t belong in there.” ‡

4. Give yourself permission to exist. Listen, kids. You are not a role. You are not a type. You are not a mirror. You are a human being. A squishy soft miracle with a whole lot of possibility in every one of your cells. You are not a human doing-all-the-right things. You are not a human saying-all-the-right-things. You are a person with permission to exist, in all the complexity of what that means, and you get to see how God’s possibility will unfold in your life. I can’t think of anything better. §

5. Ask yourself questions like, “What would you like to do today?” Maybe you have a lot of things that you need to do, but don’t necessarily want to do. That’s okay. That’s normal. But is there one thing you really want to do? I think it would be fun to figure out what it is, and then find time for it by refraining from scrolling through social media or going on Youtube rabbit trails. Do that thing, and then remind yourself that you are doing it, and that you chose it. “I’m going for a walk in the forest because I really want to.” 

6. Enjoy where you are. Where you are is the best place to be. It’s the only place you can experience. Right? We don’t get two bodies or two souls. We have this one that moves and can be in a certain space and time in the world. That means that at any moment in time, we are not doing lots of things, not being lots of places.

But where you are and what you are doing is the very best thing, because it is the thing that you can feel with your hands, see with your eyes, hear and smell and taste. Even if where you are is trapped under a six-year-old’s sweaty arm really late in a long drawn out bedtime situation that involved many cups of water and an interrupted bedtime story. It’s the best place. ¶

8. Be in your body for a while, instead of your head. Are the sheets soft? Is the coffee hot? Do you like the smells in the air around you? Do you think that red paint looks tasty? Don’t eat it. But imagine what it would taste like if it were actually food. Yum. But no, yuck. Really, don’t eat it.

9. See yourself clearly. It is not self love to believe you are the person you wish you were, to hold tightly to that picture and defend it like a honey badger whenever anyone calls you on something that doesn’t fit the picture. The most friendly thing you can do for your dear self is open the door that you are so vehemently standing in front of. Let the fresh air and light in, let the Spirit of God softly sing over you, over the real you. 

10. Watch the sky whenever you can. It’s just so big, it’s so much bigger than anything in your everyday life. If you can see stars, you may get an idea of how tiny and beloved you are, that you have been set down gently in your life, to be this person, to learn that you are loved and that because you are loved and made by God, you don’t get to trash talk yourself. And the more you learn this, the more you stop loving others because you think they are better than you and can save you. You learn to love simply and tenderly, to hold others in your heart because of the honor of being created ones together. **

* Self loathing is one of the trickiest things I know. When I don’t know how to feel, or mental health is not in a good place, I revert to good actions and then remind myself that these are not the actions of someone who hates herself.
For example: I took a shower and then put coconut oil on my hair. These are not the actions of someone who hates herself. I went for a walk and listened to my favorite music. These are not the actions of someone who hates herself. I made a stir fry and lit candles at my table, sitting and talking with my kids. These are not the actions of someone who hates herself. Sometimes it’s all I can do. I’m feeling the bad feelings, but I’m acting on something different.

† The next part of this is walking with God. Every store you go into, every hard thing, you are doing it with the Spirit of God near you. Hovering, gently touching, ready to take the hard things on. Jesus beside you, looking at the tags on the second-hand sweaters, or finding a clear, soaring path through the tangly jungles of social interactions. Going for a jog with you. Looking at you with such clear-eyed tenderness, even though he knows every single hard or bitter thing in your heart. 

‡ The advanced pose is to not base what you do or think on the imagined reactions of others. For those of us with anxiety or neurological differences, this is trickier than it might appear. Some of us don’t actually know what we really think. And even trying to figure it out can bring on a whole emotional break down. Why? Because it can be a terrifying thing to realize that you don’t actually know how to be if you aren’t basing it on the reaction you are expecting. This is an intermediate trick, therefore, but it is a very friendly thing you can do for yourself. I call this permission to exist. See the next point.

§ This can be confusing also. Of course, we are interconnected. Of course, we touch each other in every area of life, and kindness goes an incredible distance. Mostly because we have the privilege of reassuring others that they too have permission to exist. But there is something about defining yourself as a role that is dehumanizing and doesn’t honor God in his continuing creation within you. For instance, if you are the role of mother, in the verb sense, you can fail at this. But you can’t fail at being a human, at being a creation of the most beautiful, smart, absorbing and wonderful being in the world.  

¶ This includes doing nice things and not feeling guilty about them or trying not to enjoy them because you’re fairly sure you shouldn’t be okay with being happy. Forget that crap!

** No judgment here. I’m in the self trash talk boat. Valiantly leaping out of it, swimming for shore.

***

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