You Have Such a Good Heart

By Shannon Cutts

This month’s “Good News for Eating Disorders Recovery” ezine is out, and I wanted to share it with you here as well. Enjoy!

You Have Such a Good Heart

For many years I loathed myself.

I mean – I hated everything about “me”. Just a glimpse of my reflection on the pavement could give rise to shame.

I was also convinced that everyone else felt the same way about me that I did. Oddly enough, they didn’t.

This I found especially frustrating. When someone would try to connect with me, I would wonder what was wrong with them. Couldn’t they see? Didn’t they know? So if someone said they loved me, I assumed they were as flawed as I was and I refused to give them any time or attention in return.

This went on for years. And years. And years.

Then one day, a shift began. I made a genuine connection with a single person – my first mentor – and I shared my flaws with her, and then she shared her flaws with me, and then I realized that having things to improve in myself gave me something in common with every other person on the planet.

I also, much more slowly, began to realize that having good things I liked about myself – such as the ability to play and write music, my love for animals (and birds in particular), my desire to serve others – connected to me to every other person I saw as well.

My awareness of myself as someone worth knowing grew out of meeting my mentor, and understanding from her that my very desire to improve myself, to be a likable person, to not let loved ones down or cause them worry, was proof that I had a good heart.

Only a good hearted person would long for those things, and resolve to do whatever it took to attain them.

Only a good hearted person could experience disappointment in themselves, because in that very disappointment the realization of inner goodness and the potential for self-evolution had already been born.

Regardless of where you currently stand on this path that I too am continuing to travel, and no matter what you think of yourself right at this particular moment, you have SUCH a good heart.

Rest in this. Trust in this.

With great respect and love,

xo
Shannon

To read the full edition click HERE

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APA Reference
Cutts, S. (2012). You Have Such a Good Heart. Psych Central. Retrieved on June 20, 2013, from http://blogs.psychcentral.com/mentoring-recovery/2012/11/you-have-such-a-good-heart/