Self-tolerance - A step towards self-love

Hello, lovely positivity and gratitude community! I hope all of you are doing well. Happy New Year's Eve!

Today we are talking about self-tolerance and self-neutrality as a step towards self-love. As always, we'll first define what we mean by these terms. Self-tolerance is the state in which we tolerate parts of ourselves that may not be as appealing, as a step towards developing patience to accept ourselves as we are. Self-neutrality is the state in which we do not categorize things as good or bad, beautiful or ugly, it's more of a middle ground where we accept ourselves to just be and not have a strong opinion on our being, letting ourselves merely exist. For some people, including myself, it can be hard to receive compliments or anything remotely good about ourselves, we have difficulty looking past some mental barriers that serve as a shield towards goodness. It isn't ideal to hear, "self-love is the best kind of love you'll experience," or "self-love is the answer." Just the thought of loving ourselves could seem revolting at times. While self-love is something that is beautiful to experience, there's no need to take grand steps towards it. Self-love isn't a destination, rather a journey. A lot of us have days where we're passing by a store and our reflection makes us smile, "I look good today." And there are also days, where we avoid any reflecting surface. it's all understandable and valid, I'm sure most of us can relate.

Now talking about self-tolerance, it's a good thing to be reminded that we don't have to have the world beneath our feet. We don't have to look pretty for others, it's not our job to look aesthetic. We don't have to always do our best because honestly, sometimes our best is getting out of our bed, sometimes it's getting a shower, sometimes it's managing to smile at our reflection, sometimes it's telling your friends about your dark thoughts and sometimes it's just letting ourselves exist. It's really a lot of work! even with self-neutrality, the aim is to see ourselves as someone who has the right to just be, to not have strong opinions on our being. self-love and self-hatred, both are the extremes of a spectrum, and realistically a lot of us bounce between the two. it would be like taking a leap trying to maintain a balance, I won't say it would be easy or you just have to do it and you'll start loving yourself, as I said, it is going to be a journey. While self-neutrality may not appeal to some people at first, it has been discussed to be a great step towards self-love and self-acceptance. For a person who generally has a negative inner talk, it could be exhausting to interrupt every thought and replace it with something positive.

How can we practice self-tolerance and self-neutrality in our lives? For this, we just need to break our thoughts, interrupt them as soon as we're about to say something negative about ourselves and try to look at the broader perspective. Here are a few examples:

Instead of, "I look so ugly in this dress," we can say, "I look like a person in some good clothes."

Instead of, "my body is so weird, I don't like it," we can say, "my body functions well and I'm grateful that I have one which I can take care of."

Instead of, "I am important or I am valued," we can say, "every person deserves to be valued and made feel important, and I'm a person too."

Instead of, "I am kind and a good person," we can say, "I'm the person who makes sure my friends are never alone when they feel down, or I am someone who involves everyone in a group chat and make sure they don't feel left out."

Instead of, "I'm my own best friend," we can say, "I like the body I inhabit and, the person that I am gets me through life, they understand me better than anyone else and they have always been there for me, no matter what."

Question. What do you think about this concept of self-neutrality and self-tolerance, do you consider it to be a good step towards self-love? let us know by replying to this thread!

some additional articles you can read: https://www.elonedge.com/blog/2020/9/17/how-neutral-self-talk-can-radically-change-your-life and https://medium.com/the-ascent/you-have-to-achieve-self-neutrality-before-self-love-23b7138ed07c

Click here to be added or removed from the taglist.

Taglist: @AbHinc @Actuallynobody017 @AddictedTealover98 @aditighosh02 @ahealingEndoftherainbow22 @AmethystAngel @ArtemisGrey @black1995 @Bluesky1964 @BlueSkyes1125 @Booklover95 @brendenjensen @brilliantMoment97 @brutalBiscuit @calmsoulmeet @caringCreature8571 @catlover456 @centremid @Christiinee @ColorfulKiwi436 @comfortingRose21 @CompassionateDave @CompassionCake @decisiveOcean892 @exuberantMaple397 @fearlessFriend6573 @Fearlesslake610 @fluffyunicorns84 @frostyOcean72 @futuredavidblue98 @fy64 @GhostLily @glisteningeyes @Gozzil @GustyOne4U @happyface1014 @HappyTree906 @healinghearts0718 @HealingSinthia @healingWhisper @herealways27 @Hope3729 @Hpoole @immaddie @incredibleWatermelon1029 @intellectualDrum3128 @ItsReganingRain @IvyL @JayTheBird14 @Jennifer164 @JetBlu2507 @JoyfulUnicorn @K87 @KACOSMIC @Kassy7cups @Katiets @KoiFish @korange @Ktlev07 @Lexloveslife @lightingsun12345 @LightofWorld @LilyLe @lilypilli @lindseynlola @littleSky9143 @Lolowise475 @lumieremilkyway @lunaa1990 @mellietronx @melliotm @MiCha1005 @MissPen @MissSkeleton @moonrust @MrJacob @nadiasaleh26 @neatBalloon7178 @neverendingMermaid74 @niceDaisy36 @onedirection1213 @optimisticRaspberries5247 @orangeyouglad68 @parisliangbts @Peaceintruth @peppermintlove @Pidge2 @PurpleSnail @Redmark @reliablebutoftenforgotten @river @SadHippo208 @sail46 @sarang26 @SavoyTruffle20 @SeekingOkay @selena555 @serenitysearch @Sher217 @SilverSeastar @Skyy0 @Softhearted975 @sophiasanae @Sunisshiningandsoareyou @supportiveApple61 @sweetlife101 @Themorningowl @TNTDynamite @Totheskyandbeyond @Violiness @warmheartedBlackberry592 @WelcomeToChat @WhiteAlbatros @Zeraphim @zulegirl @zunygne0505