“It is easy to love your friend, but sometimes the hardest lesson to learn is to love your enemy.”
What’s the difference between friends and enemies?
That question seems simple, but really think about it. You think about both often. You give time and energy to both, and you end up having some kind of relationship with both.
Of course, the obvious answer is that you prefer to spend time around one and not the other. You know one is better for you to be around, and the other isn’t. It’s easy to love one of them. The other one, not so much.
This quote, however, also reflects the human psyche. Think about how you’re a friend to yourself. You give yourself food, water, sleep, and exercise. You also allow yourself entertainment and knowledge. These things help you feel alive, and like your life has meaning. However, there’s also parts of you that you dislike. Parts you don’t consider your friend. Those parts are the ones that whisper negative thoughts in your ear. These parts make you anxious and depressed as a result of not being perfect. These parts hurt.
Keeping today’s quote in mind, how are we supposed to love those parts of ourselves? How are we supposed to look at the darkest parts of our minds right in the face and tell them “Hey. I see you. I love you. You’re okay.” It seems impossible. Although it isn’t impossible, it’s certainly close to it.
In order to truly love the negative part of our psyche, we need to understand it’s purpose. For me, I imagine that part of myself as something that is simply concerned for me, and wants to watch out for the positive parts of my mental health. When we shift our mindset to understanding instead of immediate fear, it becomes a lot more difficult to not feel some kind of sympathy for things we don’t like. The dark parts of our minds suddenly become a small child that needs to be told that things are going to be okay. Our enemies become friends that are badly hurt. Our flaws become undeveloped strengths.
Remember this next time you’re angry with yourself. Remind yourself that there’s a reason you feel the way you do, and acknowledge that everybody feels that way from time to time.
Love your negative side.
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What do you do to love your negative side? How do you accept parts of yourself that you dislike? I’d love to hear what you have to say in the comment section. Feel free to like this blog post and follow me — you can always change your mind later. Also, I would sincerely appreciate it if you shared this post on social media. It helps out the blog a lot, allows me to dedicate more time to it, and grows our community. Other than that, stay tuned for future blog posts every Monday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday, and try to be the reason someone smiles today 🙂