You are listening to The Life Coach School Podcast with Brooke Castillo, episode number 38.
Welcome to The Life Coach School Podcast, where it's all about real clients, real problems, and real coaching. And now, your host, Master Coach Instructor, Brooke Castillo.
Hey everyone, what's going on? Welcome to the podcast. Today, we're going to be talking about self-appreciation.
And I know that some of you are like rolling your eyes. Oh brother, is she going to tell me to hug myself again? And I just want to say that I kind of hear what you're saying.
There's a lot of times where I've listened to people talking about self-appreciation or self-care. And I kind of want to roll my eyes about it because I'm so type A, and I really like to create and get out there and do things in the world, that taking time to take care of myself in kind of a fluffy way. I've had an aversion to it sometimes.
It doesn't feel as productive as I want to be. And I just want to say that since I've learned the tools of self-care and since I've really started applying them to my life, which was required for me because I wanted to lose weight and I wanted to figure out why I was overeating, one of the most important pieces of that was self-care. It's a whole chapter in my first book.
If I'm so smart, why can't I lose weight? It's a whole chapter is just on self-care. And in this episode, I want to talk about specifically self-appreciation.
And one of the main components of self-appreciation is attention. And I've talked so much about awareness and paying attention to ourselves and paying attention to our minds and what's going on in our minds. And, you know, that's so key and so important when it comes to self-appreciation.
The word appreciation means recognize the full worth of. And the word appreciation, when I was thinking about it, was I was thinking about how we use that word a lot to talk about other people, how we appreciate other people, and we appreciate things other people do. I also thought about it in terms of like the value of a home, or the value of money when you invest it wisely appreciates in value.
And I think that that's true for us as well. I think when we invest in ourselves, we appreciate and which means we grow in value, and we also need to take time to appreciate ourselves. Every year at the end of the year, I go through and write my goals for the next year and start thinking about what I want to do and where I want to focus on.
And one of the things that I've decided this year based on some classes that I've been taking and some coaching that I've received is that I want to focus on one thing at a time and do it really well. I know that some of you have probably heard about this concept of multitasking, how it doesn't just take longer to get something done because you're doing something else at the same time. But the wasted energy is the energy that you're wasting to shift gears in between taking on those two things.
And so as much as I can this next year, I'm really going to focus on one thing. Last year, I was focusing on many different things. I had many different ideas and many things going on.
And it was more challenging for me to get the one thing done because I was doing them all at the same time. So what I do at the end of the year is I try to appreciate what I did well the year before. I take time to be proud of myself and to pat myself on the back and to acknowledge and to look at where our success is.
And I like to acknowledge, I just met with one of the people that I work with and I just really wanted her to know how much I appreciate her and all the work that she does for the school and for me and with me. And I like to do the same thing with myself. And that I think is something we miss out on doing.
And you might even be listening to this podcast and think, oh, that would be a really nice idea. That sounds really pleasant. And you may not do it, especially those type A people out there.
If you're anything like me, you'll think this is a nice concept intellectually, but you won't actually do it. And I want to encourage you to do it because it's one of the most, I think, strengthening things that we can do. And, you know, if you're type A and you're ambitious and you like to create a lot, you need your strength, and it's a way of replenishing your strength.
And especially when you look at the year in review, a lot of you may feel like this last year was not a great year for you, and so maybe you just want to kind of dismiss it. And I think you miss the magic, you miss the gold in the year, if you don't take the time to find what you did appreciate about the year, about yourself especially. What did you do that you appreciate?
What did you create that you appreciate? What did you say? What did you learn?
What about yourself do you appreciate? So if you want to appreciate something in your life, and you want to love something in your life, what you normally have to do is take time. So think about when you're buying a house, so you want to love that house when you move into it.
So you'll take a lot of time paying attention to the house before you buy it, right? You'll go to every room, you'll look around, you'll look at the yard, you want to look at the square footage, kind of want to look at the stats, you want to see how old it is, you want to make sure everything's in functioning shape, you want to have an inspection done, right? And that's how you end up appreciating a home enough to buy it.
That's what I want to suggest that you do with yourselves. Is that you do an inspection, and you take some time to find the things that you really love and appreciate about yourself. One of the assignments, I just taught a class on self-care, and one of the assignments that I had my students do was write down 12 things.
Normally, it's 25, but I had them write down 12 things that they appreciate about themselves. And for some of them, it was very difficult. And to share it publicly was very challenging.
But it slows us down enough to acknowledge and to kind of notice those things that we really do appreciate, and therefore, I think can grow and encourage to grow, are those things that we appreciate in ourselves. So I want you guys to think about this as a process. I want you to get a piece of paper and write 1 to 12 on the paper.
And if this is really challenging for you, you may want to do mostly little things that you can appreciate. You can appreciate maybe that you can see. You can appreciate maybe that you have clean drinking water and a warm home and a bed to sleep in and a pillow to put your head on, right?
Just trying to find maybe some of the small things that you can appreciate in your life. And then, really focus in on what you appreciate about yourself. You know, what is it that you notice that you like about yourself that gives you value?
And there are things that are non-negotiable, right? When you look at yourself, that is valuable. The fact that you have a mind is valuable.
You can walk and you have a body that is valuable, okay? So, focus on those things and then try and get a little bit deeper even. One of the things that I'm going to do is I'm going to read you some of the answers.
I'm not going to give you any names to protect the privacy, but I'm going to read you some of the answers from some of my students to give you some ideas of things that you can appreciate about yourself and that you can maybe put on your list of appreciation. Okay, so here are some things that I appreciate about myself. I appreciate that I love working hard.
I think that really serves me. I appreciate that I have high energy. I appreciate that I no longer eat instead of feeling.
I appreciate that I love laughing. I appreciate that I'm generous. I appreciate that I have very cute feet.
Just ask me, I have very cute feet. I appreciate that I'm 5'9. I like being tall.
I appreciate that I love being alone. I appreciate that I'm madly in love with my husband. I appreciate that I have a quick sense of humor, that I can catch most jokes, as they're said, and especially sarcasm.
And I truly appreciate the awesomeness in myself, and that makes it really easy to appreciate the awesomeness in other women. Here were some other answers that came through. Having learned to live well without alcohol as a way to change my inner experience, I appreciate my lips and really the rest of a high functioning 65-year-old body.
I appreciate my curiosity and my desire to keep learning. I appreciate having learned to live in a non-U.S. international context for my adult life.
I appreciate the hills and valleys of a long marriage, and having learned massive lessons in the deep valleys. Here's some more. I appreciate that I can find something good in most people that I meet.
I appreciate that I had the opportunity to go to college and receive a BS and an MS and use them in my career. I appreciate my intellect. I appreciate this color of my eyes.
I appreciate that I was able to have the emotional strength and fortitude to care for my mother and keep her home until her last breath. I appreciate, as much as I love people, I do love being alone. It refuels me, and I'm confident saying it.
I appreciate that I am very open-hearted. I appreciate that I'm a freak for animals and nature. I appreciate that I grew from a victim to a survivor and to a thriver.
I appreciate that I am brave, that I love music. I appreciate that I'm good at sports. I appreciate that I'm a good mom.
I appreciate that I love learning, that I have small feet, that I have an excellent sense of humor. I love this. I appreciate that I have a beautiful voice, that I'm tenacious, that I'm thoughtful, that I'm compassionate.
I appreciate my italian-ness. I appreciate that I like to try new things. I appreciate that I'm a work in progress, and I appreciate that I am brave.
So I love reading these. And you know what's so interesting is I think that if you could get this list from everyone in your family and hear them acknowledge what they appreciate about themselves, it would be really fun to hear them read that, right? I think a lot of times we feel like if we take time to appreciate ourselves, that we're somehow being arrogant or that we're somehow being more bragging or something, just taking a moment to acknowledge ourselves and pay attention enough to appreciate, to kind of do that inspection and appreciate ourselves.
And so I'm not saying that you have to share this list with anybody, and you certainly don't have to share it with your family, but I really want to encourage you to do it for yourself. Like give yourself that moment of appreciation and acknowledging what it is that gives you value to you. What is it that you value about yourself?
And what I've noticed will happen is the things that you appreciate and acknowledge in yourself are the things that will develop and grow, and it's what you will put your attention towards. Most of us want to spend our time thinking about the things we don't appreciate about ourselves, that we don't like about ourselves, and we are constantly trying to fix all those things. And I want to recommend that you direct your energy towards thinking about the things that make you feel good.
And I've been noticing this a lot lately as something comes up that will invite me to worry or tempt me to stress out or get me kind of worked up because it triggers a bunch of negative thoughts. I've noticed that if I just switch my mind over to thinking about something I appreciate or thinking about something I'm looking forward to or thinking about my goals or thinking about what I appreciate about myself, it's an immediate shift. It's just taking the right turn.
I don't necessarily have to dive into it and explore it. I can just shift it. And the more I do that, the more my brain wants to do that because it gets more efficient at thinking about myself and what I appreciate about myself.
So I want to recommend that you do the list of 12, write them all down. And then as you go through your day, as you notice that you may be thinking a negative thought or getting kind of invited into some negative spiral, I want you to just take a moment and think of one thing you appreciate about yourself. And even if it's your feet, even if it's your eyes, just notice it, take a minute and think about it for just that second.
And notice how your feelings can change immediately. When you shift that focus, that is something that you can get very good at doing. I think the more you are able to direct your mind, tell it what to focus on, even in those really small ways, the more powerful you will be as a manager of your mind.
And in addition to that, the more you appreciate things about yourself, the better you're going to feel about yourself. So it's almost like a one-two punch. You're not just directing your mind, which is something really powerful, but you're also directing your mind to appreciate yourself, which is something that is usually very neglected when it comes to self-care.
So as we kind of go into this holiday season, and when you're listening to this, you might be right in the middle of it, or maybe you're listening to this in July, because you just found my podcast, where you've been. Then you're going to be appreciating that you can wear a bathing suit, and maybe your mind is going to try and switch and focus on the parts of your body that you don't like, and just redirect it. What do you do like?
What are the things you can appreciate about yourself? Direct your mind in that way, and find the things that you truly appreciate about yourself. So please go to the comment at the lifecoachschool.com/38.
Tell me one thing that you appreciate about yourself. And I will definitely read those comments and reply to you. And I hope you have an amazing, wonderful rest of the year.
And depending on when you are listening to this, and I will talk to you all next week. Wait, don't go yet. I have a couple of bonuses for you on this podcast episode.
Self-appreciation and the directions that I gave you there ended up being kind of a short podcast. I went, aw, you guys gonna be disappointed that you didn't get to hear me talk so much? So what I thought I would do is add on a couple of blog posts that I had written way back in the day for your listening pleasure.
And one of the reasons I want to do this is some of you don't know that all of my blog posts are on the lifecoachschool.com because we don't really have a tab for them. They're kind of secretly in there. But if you go to lifecoachschool.com and you go to the podcast tab and you scroll down, there's a section there called categories and there's a section there called archives.
And if you go there, you can find many of my writings from the past 10 years that I've written on both my personal site and on the Life Coach School site. And so I thought I would read a few of them for you here. And I will do that from time to time just to kind of give you a little blast from the past and hopefully give you something wonderful to think about.
So this one is called What If You Really Believed This? You are loved truly, deeply, not because of anything you have done or deserve, but just because you're you. You don't have to change or do it better or improve.
There's nothing needed to be more loved. Your face is amazing, just as it is with no makeup. Your smile and eyes are real and alive, and they need to be seen and felt.
Your body is beautiful with all of its imperfections and lumpy places and saggy places and scarred spaces. It's lived and alive and here. It's amazing no matter what you say.
Your mind is exactly as smart as it needs to be to fulfill your destiny on the planet. If someone is smarter than you in some other way, it's because they need to be smart to fulfill their life, and that has nothing to do with you. Your brain is perfectly perfect and capable of making all the mistakes necessary for your full life.
The people around you are doing the best they can. It's not their intention to hurt you, because if they knew how much hurting hurts them, they would never do it again. But they don't know, and that's okay.
And you can be okay with them being exactly who they are now. You don't get done what you don't get done on purpose. What you don't complete is as significant to accept as what you do get done.
It's not what gets done. It's who, who, who is getting to the getting. Oh, yes, that's you.
Perfect and amazing and here. You are here. The world has noticed.
The world is excited to see you and is wondering why you're so worried. The world is waiting for you to notice it, noticing you. And waiting for you to believe how much you are loved.
How you are love. Not in some future, better, thinner, prettier, smarter place, but here on a tuesday with your jeans on in the middle of your day. You matter now.
And here's one more for you. This one's called loving is hard when it's hard. Love is amazing when it's easy.
The other person is doing what you like when you like it, so the loving comes easily and feels great. But then they do something you don't like, really don't like. That's when loving is hard.
It's hard because you don't want to love them when they don't do what you want them to do. You want to punish them or hide from them or ignore them. But why?
Because none of these things feels good. It sucks to ignore, hide, and punish. It feels unjustified to answer unwanted behavior with love.
But do you know what? It feels good. Love always feels good.
Even when it's unjustified, love rocks. And it doesn't mean you could don't agree or want what they did. It just means you love them, and nothing they do will ever change that.
All right, everybody. Have a wonderful week, and I will talk to you next week.
