A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval – Mark Twain
This is a reminder that all of us need from time to time: to be more compassionate towards ourselves. In a world where we measure ourselves by what we do and who we are, maybe this is what we heard growing up: you should have known better, you could have done better.
But things don’t change as you get older. We might not always live up to our expectations or someone else’s standards. We might mess things up or let everyone else down. We might appear less than or inferior in comparison to those around us. We might seem weak or less committed when we need to care for ourselves.
But isn’t that okay? If we can find the compassion to forgive someone else for their imperfections, shouldn’t we be able to tolerate the same shortcomings in ourselves?
Shouldn’t we, at some point in our lives, get comfortable with being human?