05 Aug Seeing yourself as a child
“If we were to take a three-year-old child and put him in the middle of the room, and you and I were to start yelling at the child, telling him how stupid he was, how he could never do anything right, how he should do this, and shouldn’t do that, and look at the mess he made; and maybe hit him a few times, we would end up with a frightened little child who sits docilely in the corner, or who tears up the place. The child will go one of these two ways, but we will never know the potential of that child.
“If we take the same little child and tell him how much we love him, how much we care, that we love the way he looks and love how bright and clever he is, that we love the way he does things, and that it’s okay for him to make mistakes as he learns — and that we will always be there for him no matter what — then the potential that comes out of that child will blow your mind!”
The section uses the child as a metaphor. Of course, it’s not just a child who benefits from love and care, it’s ourselves too. Hay understands that sometimes we are too hard on ourselves, and reminds us of the importance of self-care and self-confidence.
