Day 9 Have you been overly critical of yourself lately?

I've only begun to notice recently that I am very hard on myself sometimes. I am a devout Christian, and so I always have the "try to be like Jesus" mentality. Obviously this is a good thing, and so I initially brushed that personality trait off, thinking that I don't want to change that. I have now realized that I don't need to stop trying to be like Jesus, I just need to forgive myself more easily when I make mistakes. Just yesterday I did something I probably shouldn't have, like we all do, and I just felt more down about it than I should have or needed to. Yesterday and today my pain has been way worse. So, I am going to try to look inward and see if I can be kinder to myself in a healthy way. Hoping I can see some positive results!

 

Hi, @Kevbot217
Have you come to any of the lessons yet on how goodism causes TMS? I’m a devout Christian too, and I was somewhat shocked to learn that goodism is rage inducing. (Does this mean being a Christian is rage- inducing, I wondered?) I think you are right that being more gentle on yourself and recognizing your humanity is really important. Another thing that helped me was, I started really looking closely in the Bible at some of the things Jesus did— And you will actually see that he had boundaries. He also got angry, sometimes. I really don’t understand all this, but I started realizing that I don’t think God wants me to be crippled with TMS. I’m sure He would support what it takes for me to get better. And if I have to learn to reevaluate my goodism, then— Maybe that’s what’s needed?

 

Great point! I think it is true that being angry isn't a sin. Berating someone is, but we can feel anger and frustration and that is okay, it doesn't make us bad people, it just makes us human. I think God wanted us to see that Jesus got angry, and we know that he was still perfect.