You don’t know what you don’t know.
When we have a major insight about ourselves that changes our perception and makes our life so much better, easier, less stressed and more fun, it can be really easy to place massive judgement on ourselves for the fact that we didn’t know or realise it before.
Some of the judgements I have experienced when I have had a life-changing insight have been:
Why didn’t I realise this before? The way I have been this whole time has been wrong. I’ve wasted so much time.
These aren’t really obvious, overt judgements that I say out loud to myself. These judgements exist in my mental chatter. They are coming from my inner critic. And they feel so real in the moment.
But here’s the thing. These judgements are just more thought. They are thoughts that are making me feel bad for growing and evolving. They are thoughts that mess with my personal development journey.
If thought is naturally always moving through me, then, why do I need to believe the judgemental thoughts more than any of the others?
Why do I need to make these thoughts more true than any of the others?
There was a time when you never knew how to tie your shoelaces.
And then you learned. Did you judge yourself for not knowing before? Probably not, because it wasn’t necessary or helpful. This really is no different.
When I have an insight, and then notice the judgemental thoughts I am holding about myself, I tell myself: that I was doing my best with the information I had at the time. And now I know differently. So, I can be different. There’s no need to hold onto these thoughts because they are just thoughts in the moment.
When we can truly see that our judgements are temporary thoughts getting in the way of the powerful path of growth we are on, it is way easier to let them go.
