Growth
Channeled quote: “You cannot hate yourself into doing better. It has to be out of love or it won’t stick.” – me
I had this realization a few weeks ago. You see, I’m pretty into fitness and when I graduated college, I noticed a change in my body because my lifestyle got a bit more sedentary now that I wasn’t walking around campus every single day for cardio in addition to my typical workouts.
I started getting hard on myself and put more pressure to work harder at the gym and push myself past limits I was comfortable with. I started feeling guilty for not going to the gym as much because I was started to lose some of my passion for working out. Then, I came to realize that this negative motivation was coming from a place of distaste for what my body looked like and not from a place of nourishing my body. I’ve always had a pretty big mind-body connection because I’ve been working out since I was pretty young, so I grew up viewing exercise as nourishment. We’ll get into that topic on the exercise card, though.
Regardless, I think that this lesson is pretty valuable, regardless of how you’re trying to grow. Once you get to your motivation, it’s a lot easier to see that you need to change your approach to one that’s more loving and celebratory of who you are.
Advice
If you pull this card as advice, it means that it’s time to open your mind to growing. Find the motivation behind why you want to grow and adjust your course of action from there. Growth is coming, so get ready!
Journal prompt
(These are going to feel like I’m dragging you, but they’re something I’ve been through so it’s what I would ask my past self.)
It’s pretty important to analyze your intrinsic motivations for growth.
Are you trying to improve your finances because you genuinely want the experiences that wealth can bring or because you’re scared of being broke?
Are you trying to expand your spirituality because you genuinely want to get to know yourself better/become more aligned or because you want to be so perfect that you don’t experience negativity at all?
Do you want to improve your genuinely thrive or do you want punish yourself for not being where you want to be yet?
Do you want to be seen because you want other people to see the light within you or because you’ve been ignored/invalidated in the past?
Do you want a relationship so that you can love and be loved by another or because you don’t love yourself enough?
