Becoming a Better Mother: Be Nice to Yourself

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The follow is a guest post from the lovely Stacey of A GOOD and SIMPLE Life.

Sometimes we can be our own best friends.  And, unfortunately, sometimes the opposite is true; we can be our own worst enemy.

In our society today, it’s all too common for women to have low self-confidence and a poor self-image. This is damaging to any woman, but it’s even more destructive when we’re mothers because we have little eyes always watching us and learning about their world through us.

I had an experience not too long ago when I found myself going through the day with an almost continuous dialog in my head about my value as a mother and homemaker.  And it wasn’t nice!  My thoughts were increasingly negative and I was starting to feel really badly about myself and my abilities.

Pretty soon I realized – gratefully – that I wouldn’t talk to anyone else that way, why was I talking to myself like that? I was able to snap out of it and tell myself that I was doing my best and my best was good enough.  It changed my entire mood and it ended up being a great day where I felt balanced in my responsibilities as a mother and as a homemaker.

One thing that can make it difficult to snap out of our negative self talk is that we often don’t even realize what we are doing.  Most of this battle is fought in the sub-conscious, and that makes it all the more dangerous! Maybe if we talked out loud to ourselves we would hear some of the terrible things we say to ourselves, but because it’s all mental, we hardly even notice what damage is being done.

As women and mothers we fight this battle daily.  A battle to love and accept ourselves for who we are.  And it’s a battle we must win!  We must fight off the feelings of inadequacy that plague us and stop us in our tracks.  We must be nice to ourselves!

That’s where the power of positive thinking comes in.  If we can focus our thoughts positively – focus on our strengths rather than our weaknesses – then we can build our self esteem and feel more confident as women and as mothers.  This will not only help us to be happier, it will help those around us, especially our family, to feel secure and happy too.

Are you aware when you're not being very nice to yourself?  What do you do?

Stacey is the mother of two young active and energetic boys who help keep life extraordinary, if not a little crazy! Her boys, including her husband, are her life and her family is her first priority. She does her best to find balance as she juggles the demands of motherhood and the requirements of home management, all while enjoying the beautiful life God has given her! Stacey blogs at A GOOD and SIMPLE Life. where she and her husband chronicle their efforts to live more simply, frugally and self-sufficiently in order to create a more meaningful, purposeful life for their family.

This post is part of the Becoming a Better Mother Series.

I'm linking up to Raising Homemakers.