A LITTLE SELF LOVE GOES A WHOLE LOT FURTHER THAN A LOT OF SELF LOATHING AND PUNISHMENT

They say when the student is willing to learn, the teacher appears. This morning I was rifling through my pile of newspaper liftouts that held all the crosswords I like to do in my spare time (all 2 minutes of it / week LOL). As I was checking that I had the oldest rather than the newest, I found in that pile, the notes that I was given by my Sports Psyche a couple of years ago. It was like a message from heaven reminding me of all the work I had successfully done with her before being sent on my way with some really positive reassurances.

I took the notes with me today and over a lovely breakfast at one of my favourite cafes I read through them again to refresh my memory of our sesssions. Well needless to say, a couple of really obvious things jumped right out at me and I had one of those "duh smack yourself on the forehead moments" which is probably just what I needed to snap me out of this stupid stupid rut I've gotten myself into over the last week or so. Within minutes it was obvious where I had gone wrong and how easy (theoretically) it would be to fix that.

When I find myself in these situations (you know the crappy negative ruts) it is hard to break out from them but what always makes it easier is a complete change in routine. And thats what I had today (perhaps another small heavenly Godsend). I had booked a leave day so that I could attend a school excursion that would be near my work. So my day was: drop son at school, have breakfast at one of my favourite cafes on the way to work, do a couple of hours work to stay on top of things, join the excursion (and in doing so make my son's day), enjoy catching up with some of the other mums and then score an early dismissal and enjoy it by visiting one of our favourite cafes for a coffee and biscuits.

I found myself eating a fraction of what I've been consuming lately and more importantly I was not obsessed with food and feeding my negative thoughts. Hooray!!

And to think, all week I've been telling myself that now I must eat quite strictly to compensate for overeating. Deep down its just freaked me out and made me feel worse and I couldnt bring myself to do it. Just goes to show, a little self love goes whole lot further than a lot of self loathing and punishment.

Now that its the thick of winter I cant resist sharing this pic taken on our Noosa holiday in January this year. Yes I'm seriously hanging out for summer again.

:-) M