As part of Learning To Treat Ourselves Better, I want to write about the concept of aiming high and always growing, but also the importance of doing it with self-awareness and empathy for others.
What Does Learning To Treat Ourselves Better Mean?
First, this doesn’t mean treating yourself to a cupcake, although it can if you want it to, but the main idea behind this is how to take care of yourself, and darn it, sometimes we do need a cupcake!
It is about becoming a partner to yourself and learning to meet your own needs before expecting others to meet them.
It is about understanding yourself.
It is about expressing your emotions and healing your traumas.
It is about becoming a more in-tune version of yourself.
It is about liking yourself.
It is about having healthier boundaries.
It is about having healthier relationships.
Learning is the operative word here because self-care is a constant process.
Learning To Treat Ourselves Better involves the personal and professional aspects of life.
How you treat yourself in your personal life will also affect how you show up in your professional life.
If you are generally hard on yourself in your personal life you might also push yourself professionally, and if you are a business owner or CEO, you may push your employees too, either consciously or subconsciously.
It’s good to aim high and expect the best, from yourself and others, but when does it reach a level when it can potentially turn into a low point?
Learning To Treat Ourselves Better means having the self-awareness and empathy to see the bigger and intricate picture.
If you cannot see beyond the desire to push and up-level, and how it might affect the already-established systems, you are running at risk of recycling rather than getting better or really growing.
Recycling means using what you already have in the people around you, be it employees or acquaintances, family or friends, and thinking that they can provide you with the skills, tools, or whatever else when you really need to expand and create new roles or systems that facilitate true growth.
This doesn’t mean firing people or cutting people out of your life, it means creating the best, most suitable roles for everyone.
Sometimes being flexible is a good thing and sometimes you just need more people to fulfill different roles or needs.
The desire to constantly improve your self-awareness will help you be able to see beyond the need to just expand for expansion’s sake.
Learning To Treat Ourselves Better starts with the self-awareness to ask important questions like, “Is this working?” or “Do I need to fill this gap here?”, or “Do I need to set new boundaries?” or “How is this change affecting others?”.
Learning To Treat Ourselves Better requires us to develop more attentiveness not only to ourselves but the environment we occupy and create, whether it’s a relationship, our home life, or a business.