This morning I wrote a little good luck email to He Who Shall Never Be Named Online. It read:
"Good luck.
Go get 'em.
Love you."
Only, because it was so early, and because I had just started this cleanse, and had therefore limited myself to one single measly caffeinated beverage, I was groggy, and accidentally sent the email to myself instead.
As the unintentional recipient of my own email, for a moment, my words looked alien in my in-box. I had that feeling of having stepped outside the familiar, into a realm in which anything could happen. My imagination immediately started making up stories. What extraordinary endeavor might I be undertaking that might prompt this mysterious stranger to wish me good luck? Who was the author of the unsigned email? What was he or she to me? It felt like almost anything might happen.
Sometimes I'm so busy in the routines of my everyday that I forget--almost anything actually can happen.
For a moment, looking at my own words as though they'd been written by somebody else made me experience myself as a stranger. It also really hit home that the tone I use for talking to other people is so very different from the tone I use with myself, when having conversations in my head. Historically, I reserve a much stricter, and much, much meaner tone for myself.
Screw that.
Today, I'm going to play along with my own pep talk.
Okay, self:
"Good luck.
Go get 'em.
Love you."
What does your inner monologue sound like? Are you nicer to other people than you are to yourself?
thank you! a lot of familiarity there :-)
Posted by: Susanna Harwood Rubin | May 11, 2011 at 09:33 PM
If I were as rude to others as I am to myself, I would very righly be considered a horrible person :)
Posted by: Linda Lubin | May 12, 2011 at 11:08 AM
I was so rude (to myself) yesterday I dropped and gave (myself) 10. Yes, pushups. It was awesome. Thinking and loving you!
Posted by: Susana | May 12, 2011 at 03:00 PM