Dec 22 2007
Accepting Gifts
I try to practice what I preach and I have been doing affirmations:
I love myself.
I accept myself.
I appreciate myself.
I deserve the best and I accept it now.
All is well.
There are all types of gifts you can accept and one of them is a compliment. I have been making a conscious effort to accept compliments and not negate them.
Do you negate or downplay compliments?
Someone says, “Wow! You look great today…is that a new shirt?”
And you reply, “Really? This old thing?”
Graciously accept the compliment – it’s a gift and accepting it makes the giver feel good. Accepting it should make you feel good as well – because you deserve the good.
I’ve been making a serious effort in replacing my negative thoughts with affirmations. Affirmations are subtle…just as subtle as negations!
So here I have been saying, “I accept the good…I deserve the good…” and I’m out at the grocery store with a friend.
He said, “Hey, I want to buy you some groceries – knock yourself out!”
He knows I’m (positively stated!) Between Jobs and he also knows that I can afford groceries!
He said, “The last time I offered to buy you groceries, all you got was broccoli! Dang girl! You need something better…like…A STEAK!”
I said, “But all I needed was broccoli and I seldom eat steak.”
He said, “I want to get you something…so go crazy, I’m telling you.”
The last time he urged me to buy groceries was a week ago. I’ve been gung-ho with affirmations since then. So THIS time around I think, you know, he really wants me to load up.
So I went ahead and loaded up – I got cauliflower, red bell peppers, walnut halves, broccoli, snow peas and Fuji apples.
He said, “Now THAT’s more like it!”
He paid and it wasn’t that much – maybe twelve dollars (those walnuts and snow peas were a treat).
I said, “I feel like a kept woman…kept in produce!”
We both laughed.
“Thank you so much,” I told him.
“My pleasure.” he said. And it was.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
I hope that you at least have some ham or chicken for your holiday meal!!!
May you have a blessed and loving Christmas, MsQ – Eric
Speedy! I may get “BOWF” as my mom would say – visiting some cousins who host a houseful of relatives and they usually provide the “groaning tables!” I will bring wine and some Russian chocolates!
Thank you for your wishes and I wish you a wonderful, loving, blessed and huggerific Christmas!! Will you be “Grandpa is in DAH HOUSE?!”
Maybe you will be wearing your Turkinator Pants?? Hehehe! Or did you order a kilt? (as far as I know, this is a total inside joke).
I’ve been trying to accept compliments, lately, too. It is tough. I don’t believe a word anyone says, unless it is critical of me.
I have decided that, sometimes, people say nice things to me or about me because They Actually Believe Those Nice Things. It is hard to accept, but I am trying.
Merry Christmas, Ms Q. May you find a trim guy in cargo pants and a tight black tank, among your presents. He’ll be asking you out to lunch, around the corner from your new office. Where you help people feel good about themselves. I can see it all, right now.
yeah, accepting a compliment is hard. I actually saw a social skills poster at school teaching kids how to do it…
That’s so nice about your friend & hope you enjoyed your meal!!!!!!!!!!!!! Very funny on kept in produce!
You have some great friends Ms.Q. Enjoy that food and have a merry Christmas.
Christine: Wow – you have trouble with compliments as well? I’m glad you’re working on accepting your good because you are All That And More! You have one funnee blog and your family sounds jam-packed with funny loving goodness..and grapefruit.
I LIKE your Christmas wishes for me! YOWWEE! I do kinda have this vision of me cheering people up around the office. I like smiling faces, that is for sure. I feel like I’m channel Homer Simpson – I have this dumbfounded look and a thought bubble with this guy in a black tank and cargo pants and I’m saying, “Car…go…pants…” hahahaha!
Jill: After I read that a compliment is a gift someone gifts you, it changed my attitude a bit – like, do I want to throw their gift back in their face? NOPE.
My friend is now trying to get me to accept produce every Friday. I am enjoying the walnuts. He had a big laugh when we last chatted – I said, “I’m eating your nuts.”
He said, “GIRL, you are SO BAD!”
Ricardo: I have some FANTASTIC friends. I’m so grateful to have such wonderful people in my life. Since I began to open my heart this year my friends have told me that I have changed quite a bit. I never thought of myself as particularly closed or reserved but a few of them have remarked on how I’ve become more open. It’s true that you can really see yourself all that well. What I have noticed is that I am much more open to talking with strangers and smiling at them and when I go for my walk, it’s quite nice all the smiling and sometimes hugging.
I tend to choke on my tongue when someone compliments me.
I’m trying to get better at it.
Oh that IS an interesting way to think of it!
delmer: Choking on your tongue: Not Good.
Accepting compliments: Good.
You deserve compliments – you have much to compliment upon: funny, self-deprecating, and you look great in a balaclava.
Jill: I keep that image in mind when I get compliments. I’m telling ya, it helps!