The Twenty-Third Question: Exploring Self-Love

Trying to get to the bottom of the origin of our internal critic, and working on strategies for disarming them.

No, you didn’t miss an email from me. I took the day off on Friday and skipped a response to Question #22.

And that’s okay. A lot happened.

I hadn’t been sleeping well all week, and Thursday night I spontaneously went to see Taylor Swift at SoFi Stadium here in LA. Am I a Swiftie? No. I’d rate my fandom at a 6.5/10, but I am a fan of a good time and Taylor puts on one incredible show. The energy is unmatched by any concert I’ve ever been to, and the sheer euphoria is, in my mind, only matched by what we’ve seen before from Beatles concerts in the 1960s, Michael Jackson in the 1980s, and Beyonce today. The smiles and joy are so infectious you can’t help but smile the whole time.

So there I was, a single 34-year-old white guy, dancing and cheering alone at a T. Swift show. And I regret nothing.

Yes, I had incredible seats too.

(For more on Taylor Swift, and some great writing, I suggest taking a read of this

Alex Lewis

piece here)

Anyway, by the time I got home from the concert (and I jogged the route home instead of taking an Uber…yes, I’m crazy) it was 12:30AM, by the time I got to bed it was 1:30AM, and I had meetings from 8:30AM. Trying to find time to write the blog in-between all of that was just starting to feel like homework, and that’s never what I want this to be. So rather than force myself to do that, I let myself prioritize the things I needed to and let the rest fall to the side.

You could say that writing the blog was the thing I needed to say no to this week!

On to Question #23.

What part of yourself do you most struggle to love?

It’s a big question. Sorry not sorry. Some ways to dive in:

• What does your internal critic say about this?

• Taking the style of a rebuttal or letter to the editor, rebut your inner critic with all the ways this part of you is amazing.

• What’s the origin story for this struggle? What was the triggering event to make you dislike this thing, and why has it persisted?

• What media do you consume or relationships do you maintain that make this persist?

• What things could you say to yourself when you are experiencing this lack of love to overcome it?

See you Friday!

-

For more prompts like this delivered to your inbox every Sunday, subscribe below.