Be Gentle with Yourself as You are Growing into the Next Version of You

Are you like me, on a journey of self-growth and self-discovery? Do you feel like you are constantly being challenged to grow and change, to become more of yourself? Do you feel exhausted sometimes from trying to shed the past, and your unhelpful beliefs?

When you are growing into yourself, and making an effort to live in a more conscious way, it can get discouraging sometimes. Especially when you are subject to situations and people in your daily life that lower your vibration.

It can be a challenge not to lower your own vibe, to react in the old conditioned ways that you grew up with. You find yourself getting angry, upset or triggered by things that happen, and it makes you question your inner growth.

Just because you are working on spiritual self-growth, that doesn't mean that there won't be times that you get triggered.

This is especially true if you have been through any kind of trauma in your past, or if you are living with mental health issues. It is so easy to go back to our old ways of just reacting out of fear.

It is easy to get sucked into sadness, to wonder if anything ever really changes.

Be gentle with yourself

When you are feeling down, like nothing is going right, make sure to be extra gentle and loving with yourself. Take extra time for self-care, take naps, journal or meditate. Lately, I have been watching motivational TikTok's. It really makes a difference to input something positive into my day.

If you are tired, and I don't just mean sleepy but bone weary in your soul, give yourself grace and take time to rest. Put off making any important decisions until you feel better. And, stop putting pressure on yourself to feel better more quickly.

We think sometimes because we are on a spiritual path that things should be easier for us, but that isn't really the case. It just means that we are more aware of our own thoughts, feelings and patterns. And sometimes this awareness can create a cognitive dissonance for us when we are feeling down.

Just because you are a spiritual person, that doesn't mean your life is going to always be easy or perfect.

Just because you are aligned with yourself and your path, it doesn't mean that you won't have down days.

Accepting the bad days, the bad feelings, and the things that are unpleasant within ourselves is part of our healing journey too. Life isn't all mountain top moments, it still has valleys too.

When you are in those valleys, it is important to be more loving and kind with yourself. Treat yourself like you would your best friend, or a beloved child. Care for yourself in a loving way. Forgive your mistakes. Embrace yourself with love.

Growth takes time

It also takes practice and a lot of hard work. If you have chosen the path of self-growth, you have taken the harder road through life. You have taken the path less traveled. That means, there are a lot of answers that you have to figure out for yourself.

Sometimes, you may feel isolated and alone. That is normal too.

Being high-vibe all the time, and focused on spiritual truths isn't for the faint of heart. But, you probably knew that already.

Unlearning years of negative social conditioning takes time. Learning to react to life in healthier ways takes time. It takes practice. And as we are practicing, it won't be perfect all the time.

According to Thought Catalogue,

Growth and being self-aware takes time. You will experience moments where you will feel proud of yourself, and you will experience setbacks. Yes, growth sometimes means one step forwards and two steps back. Yes, sometimes it means you will find yourself on the bathroom floor, crying for no reason. Yes, sometimes it means you will be able to set boundaries with these toxic people or put a stop to old toxic habits. Yes, sometimes you won’t be able to see how your own behaviour is sabotaging you until you take a minute and look at yourself in the mirror to understand you should have handled this situation differently. Next time it happens, you won’t react in the same way because you would have learned from your mistakes.

Just like you didn't grow into an unhappy, unhealed person all at once, you can't grow into someone happy and healed all at once either. Changing our automatic patterns takes time. It takes work. It takes self-awareness.

Sometimes those things lapse.

It is so much easier to react in the moment in an unhealed way, to become sad, to question ourselves. If it was easy to heal life's scars, then everyone would be doing that. But they aren't. Most people don't even realize the need to heal.

But you have. You have taken the harder road. So, be gentle with yourself as your path is unfolding.

Forgive yourself

When you react in the same old, unhealed way, forgive yourself. You clearly know that you weren't at your best. Something happened that hurt you, and you reacted in a hurt way.

Holding onto anger and resentment towards yourself for the way that you reacted can just make matters worse. Directing anger at yourself just makes your problems last longer. It allows you to stay stuck.

When you forgive yourself, when you release anger towards yourself, you can get back onto your healing path again.

It's like falling off a bicycle. Just because you crashed once, it doesn't mean that you can't do it. It doesn't mean that you shouldn't get back up.

Remember, you reacted in a conditioned way. You followed your emotions, you allowed a circumstance to get the best of you. Ask yourself what you can learn to do differently next time instead of getting so upset.

Do you need to be setting better boundaries with people? Do you need to learn to say no sooner to situations that aren't serving you? Do you need to cultivate a deeper sense of peace so things won't bother you as much?

Whatever the case, the sooner you forgive yourself for how you reacted in an unhealed way, the sooner you will be able to move forward and achieve an even deeper level of healing than before.