Forgiving

Dear friends,

You’ve probably seen this floating around the internet:

I’ve been thinking about how we often are coached to consider how we’ll forgive others, but we aren’t often taught how to forgive ourselves. And yet, for most of us, we are our own biggest, meanest, strictest critic. The inner critic—mine’s name is Wanda—is that judgmental voice that tells us we are bound to be bad at that new thing, so why bother to try. Or who points out every single flaw in our writing, art, cooking, personality, body…the list goes on. The inner critic often has us convinced that we aren’t smart enough, skilled enough, thin enough, strong enough, pretty enough, enough enough to do any thing outside our very limited frame of reference.

The thing is, Wanda is usually trying to protect me. You inner critic is probably the same. Wanda doesn’t want me to get hurt or disappointed. But in so doing, she’s keeping me in a very small, confined box. Wanda never learned that in order to get good at something, we have to try and fail. That in order to learn something new, we have to get frustrated and sad occasionally.

One of the hardest things I’ve had to learn is to forgive Wanda for her overprotectiveness.

Even harder than that?

To forgive myself for listening to her.

This month is all about forgiveness. Perhaps you also need to extend the olive branch to the younger you who listened to Wanda (or all the real, live critics out there). Maybe you need to forgive Wanda. Or your critical mom. Or that teacher who shamed you for your abstract-inspired drawing in ninth grade.

Why forgiveness, you ask?

Welp. One thing we most definitely need to create is space. Whether thats physical space, ala Virginia Woolf’s room of one’s own, or mental space, we cannot create from a place that imprisons us with old clutter. Forgiveness is a gift to ourselves; we can give ourselves the space to move freely on our own creative journeys.

Onward!

SRB

 And an announcement

In other news, it’s time to share a shift in Bewonderment’s mission with you. 

As of October 31, 2023 the membership program will close.

I’m shifting my attention to creating several more in-depth explorations of creativity, wellness, writing and community care. I’ll be sharing more of them with you over the upcoming months. In the meantime, here’s what you need to know:

• You will continue to have new content for the months of August, September and October

• Your last billing cycle will be a month prior to the end of the membership. You’ll have access to all the content until the end of your month.

• You can still take advantage of the 1:1 coaching session that comes with your membership until the end of October

  Please feel free to reach out with questions! This has been a glorious ride, and I thank you for being on it with me.

 XO,

SRB