Practicing compassion

Apparently I'm terrible at follow-through. I was going to pick up where I left off in the Blogger Challenge today, but I don't really feel like writing about my favorite TV shows. But I do feel like writing.

Mondays are my therapy days, and they are wonderful. I see an individual therapist and also do group therapy. I whole-heartedly recommend therapy to anyone and everyone. Truly. It's important for me to acknowledge that though I have a lot of knowledge around counseling and therapy (and someday soon I too will be a therapist), I can't do my own healing.

It's been a rough day. I haven't slept well the past two days, and sleep seems to fill not only a physical purpose for me, but an emotional one as well. When I haven't had sleep it's difficult to be present in the day to day things. It's hard to retain and process information. This has gotten a lot better for me in the last 6 months or so but I still have days here and there where I don't get enough sleep.

Besides the sleep issue I am struggling to be compassionate with myself. Compassion for others is a no-brainer. It is taught across religions and cultures and to people of all ages. The well known Bible verse says to treat others as you would want to be treated. Another challenges us to love our neighbor as ourselves. I would argue that Christians have generally confused greed and materialism and vanity with self-love. Those things are not self love. Loving and having compassion for ourselves means acceptance and understanding for ourselves as God sees us-- just as we are. Not 10 years from now. Not 20 pounds from now. Not a year of faithful church attendance from now. Just us. Now. I've been asking myself this constantly and mindfully-- am I practicing compassion for myself? Do I treat myself with as much understanding as I do others? The answer unfortunately, is not nearly enough.