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Are You Your Own Worst Enemy?

 I can be my own worst enemy. I do things that disagree with my nature, things that cause me stress. It seems rather silly, right? Okay, maybe idiotic is a better descriptor. Regardless, I still do them. Why? Good question. I'm not a psychologist, but having lived with myself for a while now, my best guess would be that it's because of the lies I've believed (which you can read about here if you missed last week's post).


So what exactly do I do that makes me an enemy of me? Here are a few of them:
* I spend too much time on electronic media, most notably: Facebook, emails, and Amazon. Do I really need to know what the sister of my best friend in sixth grade is up to? How many times a day is too many times to see if Airfare Watchdog has found me a cheap flight to my desired destination when, in the two years that I've been watching, they've found ZERO? And how many books can I add to my Wish List in one day (quite a few as it turns out)?
* I demand of myself a thoroughly uncluttered habitat both at home and work.
* I can't leave things undone or half-done.
* I allow oodles of interruptions to my day. I put out fifty fires and neglect the five important projects I need to do. Part of that is the nature of my job and my work environment. Part of it is that I fail to set boundaries.
* Guilt is a habit that I didn't even realize I had until I made last week's list. I'm not proud of it, and I don't particularly like it.
* I get hurried, which zaps any sense of peace I might otherwise have had.

While I need to work on making the above list shorter, or better yet, non-existent, there are also ways that I can make a positive contribution to change this relationship from worst enemy to best friend. Such as:
* Make time each day for prayer/meditation
* Talk a walk
* Soak in a hot bath
* Read a good novel
* Spend time outside
* Get a massage
* Write
* Just say no

In Matthew 22:38, Jesus tells us to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. This is the second of the two great commandments, so I'm thinkin' that must mean it's pretty important. The command begs the question, can we truly love our neighbor if we don't love ourselves, and what exactly does it mean to love ourselves? We know it's not a call to a self-centered life (that would be totally un-Jesus-y). Perhaps it simply means being a friend, rather than an enemy, to yourself.

Maybe we should all try it. It might make the world - or at least our own corner of the world - a more pleasant place to live.

(Introverts Thrive: week two assignment -  make your own lists of ways in which you are your own worst enemy and ways that you can be a friend to yourself.)

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