One of my favorite Instagram accounts, @henrysthoughts, is doing a series on holiday gifts you should give yourself. If you’re on Instagram I highly recommend this account – it’s somehow inspiring, heartwarming, and hilarious at the same time. And I won’t even get into @catsoapopera, the soap opera, YES STARRING CATS, run by the same person as this account. IT’S AMEOWZING.
Anyway. Back to the gifts.
One of them was grace, and it was such a good reminder not to be hard on yourself this time of year. If you click through, it talks about not being perfect, and it’s okay if you don’t get everything done you set out to do, with advice to be kind to yourself and indulge in positive things. Then there are some toot jokes because that is how this account rolls and part of why I love it so much.
This weekend, a friend reached out to me feeling bad because someone sent them a holiday gift and they hadn’t sent them one. It was a bit funny they reached out to me about this because I was going to reach out to them to say I was feeling bad about the same thing! Ha!
I told them that their feelings are 100% valid (I was feeling the exact same way) but also shared Henry’s advice to give themself some grace, and reminded them that they would not feel bad if they sent someone something and didn’t get anything in return.
We were then talking about how things sometimes slip through the cracks when other big life things are going on, and how much that bothers us (I am still annoyed I forgot to RSVP no to a party this fall, ha). But the thing is… if that bothers people who are supposed to be our friends, then that’s a sign they aren’t a good friend, because they aren’t giving US any grace.
So this post is my roundabout way to remind you to give grace to yourself, and other people. I have a tiny little health thing going on and it blows my mind how much it’s thrown me off track with my mental game. I am forgetting things I would never forget before and I hope people are giving me grace!
Thanks for the reminder! Being gentle with myself does not come naturally. But I’m working on it both with the holiday season and my hip injury
You’re welcome! You have a lot going on and are doing the best you can! <3
You are also doing a wonderful job with everything you have going on.
The hip is not great- it’s not better after a month of no running and PT. I am getting an MRI tomorrow which will hopefully give me some answers. Darn these bodies!
Thank you!
Darn!!!! I don’t want them to find anything wrong but I do want them to get you answers!
Thank you for saying this. It was exactly what I needed to hear right now!!
You’re very welcome! Love you!
Right on! We are so much harder on ourselves than we would ever be on a friend for the same thing. We definitely need to be kinder to ourselves, especially at this time of year. Great reminder, Kim!
Exactly!!!! Thank you! 🙂
Yes, yes, yes. This is such a good reminder. The Christmas season can be one FILLED with guilt, and we just need to learn to release that feeling. Gifts should be given without the expectation of reciprocation. I think enneagram 2s really struggle with getting gifts because YOU are the person who wants to give rather than receive.
Right! It’s so hard to learn to release them! I can’t tell if I am getting better or worse, or staying the same. LOL. The friend who was struggling is also a 2 😉