I LOVE that!!!
Goodness - this really hit home with me. Truly needed to hear these words. Thank you!!!
More mental health wisdom from Sharon Salzberg…
"What happens to our pride, our self-respect, if we fall down, if we don’t live up to the vision we’ve had about ourselves? It seems that as we grow into our personal and professional identities, we often begin to view ourselves as static entities:
“I do this for a living. This is who I am.”
“I’m a fearful person and I always will be.”
“I failed to live up to my ideals; therefore, I am a failure.”
In fact, we are processes, dynamic systems constantly in flux. And as dynamic systems, we are naturally creative—we have the ability to reinvent through disruption and the capacity for reorganization and self-repair when we’ve been physically or emotionally challenged.
We can remember (as in rejoin with) our deeper values, fundamental commitments, helpful ways of being that might have eroded or been flung away. Any system loses creativity by getting stuck in fixedness or rigidity, by losing its flexibility.
What does this mean day to day? We fall down, and we can pick ourselves up or let someone help us up, and we start over. We are moving along a certain track and we realize it’s the wrong direction, and we need a course correction. We make a mistake, we take an honest look at it for lessons learned or for a way to make amends, and we begin again. Recognizing our potential to make amends, to start over, to try can all be sources of self-respect.
In this way, pride broadens our mindsets by reminding us about different and kinder ways we want to live. We can respect the ways we’ve tried to make a difference and be energized to move closer to an integrated life."
Simply love this. She is so skilled at explaining these concepts around our shared humanity and the fluidity available to all of us in really digestible ways. Good stuff.
I pick thru her books a lot. She definitely has a gift in how she shares and makes complex ways of being simply human and okay. Or that’s my take anyway. 
This has been real true for me. Coming to a place of acceptance and letting go of guilt for being so lost for so long. Being gentle and compassionate with myself has helped a lot. Cuz all that judging, shame and guilt of my past was holding me down.
Thanks for sharing.
What an incredible message!!! Thank you for sharing…i didnt have time to read whwn you posted but so grateful that i remembered to circle back.