Do You Make Choices That are Loving and Kind to You?

I heard a question posed the other day, “What if you only made choices that were loving and kind to you?” That got me thinking about the many choices we make in a day, week, month, or year and how many of those choices are really loving and kind to ourselves? We live in such a fast paced world that we don’t often slow down enough to recognize the types of choices we are making. It’s almost as if we are on autopilot doing the next thing and the next thing and the next thing.

Could you do an experiment this next week and slow down enough to notice whether or not a choice was kind and loving to you? Then take it a step further and make those choices that are loving and kind to you. Notice, I keep adding the words “to you” at the end of the loving and kind suggestion. I have done that for a particular reason. We often think that when we choose something that is loving and kind to ourselves that it means we are taking something away from someone else. That simply is not the case.

When you are kind to you that only means that you are choosing something that aligns with who you are. It is a step toward claiming who you are on the inside. It is a way to help your inside and outside selves match up. We get all jangled when they are not congruent. What if you started by making one choice today that was kind to you? What if your intention was to make one kind choice every day for the next week? Set aside all of your “shoulds” and judgments and allow yourself to be on your own side. I can’t wait to hear the results of your experiment!

PS Now, I want to give you the backstory of the picture I picked for this post. It is a pink lemonade cake that I have picked year after year for my birthday. When my husband and I got married I told him that the one thing in our marriage contract was that I would have a homemade birthday cake every year and he would be the one to bake it. He agreed and has made many wonderful different cakes. I used to find a new recipe every year however, over that past probably 10 years I have picked the same cake (and yes, my kids do tease me about it, but I think they secretly like the tradition).

It is a cake my mother made for me. We put it on a plate that was my grandmother’s and I eat it on a plate that says, “You are special today.” The reason that I chose this picture is that I realized it is an example of me choosing something that is kind and gentle for me. I love lots of kinds of cakes, but this is my favorite! I love to explore different foods, but this is my kind and gentle choice for my birthday. It’s what I want and as my dad says, “It’s roots!”