Stop Torturing Ourselves
Our focus this week — Aug 27-Sep 2: “Forgiveness”
Today’s MotD: Stop Torturing Ourselves. We are encouraged to step out of our self-torturing loops…you know, the ones where we keep hashing and re-hashing over something we did “wrong” or could have done better. All this does is block us from our authenticity, our worthiness, and our pure potential. We can do this through self-forgiveness.
We are reminded that “forgiveness” is not about glossing over or even condoning an action or behavior. No, it’s about giving ourselves some grace, realizing that we know better now, and then making a vow to ourselves that we will do better next time.
Our biggest challenge, and this is something Brené Brown talks about, is to avoid mixing up our identity with our behavior. In other words, just because we may have done something that we consider “bad” it doesn’t mean we’re a “bad” person…the behavior is “bad”, or the choice we made is “bad”…we are not “bad”. To use Brené’s terms: we are not flawed, our behavior and/or our choices are flawed. With this mindset it becomes easier to stop torturing ourselves.
Essentially, we’re encouraged to recognize when we’ve made a mis-take, made whatever amends we need to, and then replaced our “self-torturing” ways with more “self-supporting” ways.
How about you ? Do you tend to beat yourself up for making mistakes ? Do you tend to let it loop around in your head, so much so that it seems to become part of your identity ? Are you open to forgiving yourself ?
BTW…Here’s the before…the front and back view of today’s puzzle piece and the pretty ceramic box that holds all my numbers from which I randomly choose each day’s puzzle piece number:
Peace & Blessings,
Maureen
The Mandala Lady
Creating Mandalas 🔆 Awakening Inner Harmony
ABOUT THE 2025 Mandalas of the Day
Throughout the year, I’ll be building one large (48”x48”) Tibetan-styled Mandala one piece at a time…one puzzle piece at a time, that is. The mandala design and the reversed puzzle side were printed on artist-quality watercolor paper. The forward facing puzzle side was printed on a 48”x48” wood panel.
Each day, at random, I’ll be painting in watercolors one of the 365 watercolor puzzle pieces, that by the end of the year will become Archangel Mandala #4. Read more about the Archangel Series. The word/message for each piece will be inspired by Melody Beattie’s book “52 Weeks of Conscious Contact”.
Ultimately, the message of this mandala is about how we are all uniquely part of the one.
Mandala of the Day 