Ways to be good to myself

EWR: Found this hanging around my loose files - don't know when I wrote it but thought I'd capture it here, unrevised as it were:

• Laugh more often
• Stay centered
• Stand up for myself
• Eat and Drink responsibly
• Stop scaring myself
• Contact friends more often
• Own and internalize my successes
• Stop to appreciate the beauty of nature
• Honor my commitments to myself
• Acknowledge it hurts when it hurts
• Acknowledge my feelings
• Be Here Now 

These are hard to argue with and even harder to do, even though they seem almost self-evident. Question is: what does it take to practice these consistently? Patience? Forgiveness? Self esteem?

JW: Maybe just remembering.

And the one about acknowleging hurt when it hurts ... just found out my first husband died this morning. A major piece of my life, one of my history keepers, my first love is gone. Vietnam took away his innocence and his health so I feel really sad that he never had the life he might have had.

I think we married too young to probably have lasted long term but we never had the chance to find out because of the damage done by Vietnam.

All of this reinforces what we are doing ... being as good to ourselves as possible. Just noticed that the above was something you wrote ... first reading made me think it was just a list. I wonder if we should take this to Julian and go through it item by item? It is very wise.

Thank you.