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Section 8 Review of My New Messages to Myself
Review of Section 8 My New Messages to Myself
You have done some deep work, noticing negative feelings and thoughts that have not served you and remembering the good-ness of you. You have worked on compassion for yourself as “perfectly imperfect.”
For new messages to ‘stick’, you must say them, write them, think them over and over and over. That’s how we learned our negative messages and how we will replace them with positive messages that more accurately reflect who we really are. This is an important step toward healing. Ask your healing partner to help you hear your new positive messages.
Exercise: Positive Messages
1. Review the “new”, more positive messages you came up with for yourself in the last exercise.
2. Re-write them below, making them even more positive and simple if you can. Examples
• I need and deserve the support of others. • God is infinitely compassionate toward the world and that includes me. • I respect myself and my own feelings.
Write your new, more positive messages:
3. Now, take a minute or two to think about how you feel when you hear these messages.
Abortion Resolution Workbook
4. Go back to the two “feelings” exercises at the beginning (Section 4) and review what you wrote there.
Let’s look at how your feelings have shifted. For example, you might describe your shift like:
• “I am not as hard on myself as I was then.” • “I feel a little lighter.” • “I still feel but I can see some ways to deal with it now.”
5. Write your own thoughts and feelings that have ‘shifted’ or changed here.
It’s hard to really believe new messages about ourselves. Our own upbringing, experiences, how people treat us, society, and the messages we get on social media and TV may be reinforcing negative messages. But, we KNOW our own truths and what makes us feel good about ourselves, our lives, and our world.
6. Copy out your essential message to yourself in a format you can put on your mirror, on your refrigerator, in your wallet or wherever you will see it everyday . Text message or e-mail it to yourself or ask others to send it to you.
This is an important exercise, so take a few deep breaths and plan out how you will spread your new message. Ask trusted loved ones to help you make this new message your own.
