I Guess I Haven't Learned That Yet: Discovering New Ways of Living When the Old Ways Stop Working

by Shauna Niequist

Self-compassion is letting yourself off the hook, letting yourself be human and flawed and also amazing. It’s giving yourself credit for showing up instead of beating yourself up for taking so long to get there.

I’m allowed to invest in my own healing, allowed to protect myself, allowed to tend lovingly to myself in all sorts of ways.

We only heal by investing in the difficult and ugly work, even if it isn’t pretty, even if it looks like a mess for a while.

Another way to look at it: self-compassion and self-care are acts of obedience, stewarding well what God has given to us, loving what he loves.

I’m starting to understand what it means to belong to myself, to recover my own heart, to reassemble all the pieces that have been broken along the way.

We learn to grab joy and delight when we can. We learn that we don’t control plotlines, even though we forget sometimes. We learn that every good thing takes time and work and patience. We learn to be suspicious of overnight success or magic solutions. We learn to ask for help, to ask for space, to ask for second chances. We learn how tough we are, and how beloved.