How to Forgive Yourself and Celebrate All You Are

Had to share…

I went upstate last weekend to see the changing leaves, pick apples, and visit with my pal Terri Cole. I LOVE this time of year! Harvest season is when we get to reap, eat, and enjoy what we planted in the spring. While we were there, we made a hearty, delicious, warming squash soup and we enjoyed it over conversation about how we have grown and changed over the last year. Terri is a brilliant and intuitive psychotherapist, someone with whom it feels really good to go deep; it was super gratifying to acknowledge all the good stuff that happened and to truly reap the emotional, self-affirming stuff we did during this last year. I don’t think we do this enough, so I am going to invite you to do the same.

From a seasonal perspective, this is the end of the year, the moment when the earth celebrates its bounty and gives us an extraordinary show of brilliant reds, oranges and yellows as the leaves change color before they fall off the trees, and apples, pumpkins, and squashes supply us with warming foods to sustain us through the winter.

From an emotional perspective, it’s important to celebrate all you have achieved and how you have grown to give yourself the internal nourishment and confidence to let go of what you no longer need this fall, go inward during the winter, and ponder what you want to plant and to create next year.

When I ask my clients to think about all they achieved last year, most have a hard time getting the list started. Somehow, it’s easier to focus on the negative and what didn’t happen. Yet, so much did happen for you last year, too!

A friend of mine passed along this passage called a BENEVOLENT SPELL by Rob Brezsny (Freewillastrology.com), and it had a magical effect. I invite you to read it, with this question in mind,

What if…….?

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Your debts forgiven

Your wounds healed

Your apologies accepted

Your generosity expanded

Your love educated

Your desires clarified

Your uniqueness unleashed

Your untold stories heard

Your insight heightened

Your load lightened

Your wildness rejuvenated

Your leaks plugged

Your courage stoked

Your fears dissolved

Your imagination fed

Your creativity uncorked

From this level of possibility, would you do this for yourself? 

Celebrate all you did for yourself this past year? 

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What if you could just forgive yourself right now for any ways you think you may have failed, let it go like the leaves falling off the trees, and focus on what you did achieve? What good stuff happened this past year?

This was such a meaningful conversation for both Terri and I this past weekend!

Please, right now, just sit for 3 minutes and finish this sentence. Just set a timer and write.

Dear Self, 

Thank you for …….

You are so ready to thank everyone else, please don’t forget about yourself. 

Doing this can help sustain you in a powerful way through the fall and winter. 

Please share in the comments below how this felt for you and share this with anyone you think could benefit from this practice of self gratitude.

So much love!!!