I've been thinking about compliments a lot lately. Why is it that we have a hard time accepting a compliment from someone? For some reason compliments make me a little uncomfortable and I am curious if others feel the same way.
What is it about nice words? I can tell you that I have held on to and believed every negative thing that has been said to me, but the nice things that are said just don't seem to stick in my brain. Is it that I feel I don't deserve to have nice things said about me? Or is it that the negative things are easier to believe? I don't know, but I'd like to figure it out.
So this month I have been paying attention to how I react when given a compliment and I can see why the nice things don't stick in my head. Case in point, I was at a Weight Watchers meeting a few weeks ago where we were talking about relationships. I talked a little about struggling with my relationship with food and myself. A couple of the other members told me that I'm beautiful and have this warmth that makes them want to be friends with me. At work, a co-worker told me that I bring a certain warmth and joy to the office that makes it nice to be there. Recently, a friend that I hadn't seen in a while told me that I was looking great and that he noticed that I had lost weight. How did I react to these compliments? I blew them off. I was embarrassed and I just kind of brushed them off like they didn't mean anything. But, deep down, that is not true. The compliments actually got me thinking about my personality and the energy that I put out there. When I really thought about what was said, I felt really good. I genuinely enjoy being around other people, for the most part, and I think that is what draws people to me. I've never really thought about that and it was nice to get positive feedback. It was also nice to get positive feedback about my weight loss. I always feel uncomfortable about those kinds of compliments because my weight has always been a negative thing for me. I am going to work on taking in and keeping the positive things that are said about me and letting go of the negative.
The weight loss has been up and down (I need to focus more on the down than on the up!) So far I am down 10 pounds since I started. When I first looked at that amount, I was disappointed. I've been doing Weight Watchers for 15 weeks and I've only lost 10 pounds. But the more I thought about it, I realized that 10 pounds is 10 pounds and it doesn't matter how long it has taken me to lose it. The fact is that I am 10 pounds lighter than I was when I started and I will continue to lose, no matter how long it takes me.
So accept compliments that are given to you and hang on to those positive words. People would not compliment you if there wasn't something good there to compliment. :)
