How you speak to yourself matters. It matters more than how anyone else speaks to you. The longest relationship we have is with ourselves, so it is crucial that we make it the best. What we think of ourselves sets the stage for everything. How we treat ourselves will determine how others treat us. We set the example so make it a good one. Every time we speak about ourselves, our minds are keeping a record. If we are harsh and critical of ourselves, we will start seeing ourselves as somehow flawed. Guess what? We start acting and behaving as if we are flawed, and you got it…..soon others will start seeing us as flawed too. An experiment was conducted using 2 houseplants. Both plants were given the same amount of food, water, air, and sunlight. However, one of the plants was spoken to daily in a gentle and encouraging voice, while the other was spoken to in a rough and critical voice. The plant that was spoken to with kindness, flourished, while the other plant withered. If this is how plants react to negative vs positive speech, can you imagine how a human would react? Think about that. Everything starts with us, and everything we can possibly ever truly need is within us. We are all a work in progress, and no one is perfect. Speak to yourself the way you would speak to someone you care about. Avoid self-criticism and learn to embrace every part of yourself. Speak to yourself in a positive manner. This can be done even while improving the parts of yourself that you think need ‘fixing’, Learn to love yourself so fiercely, so thoroughly, that you show others how it’s done. Be patient with yourself and most importantly, be kind to yourself.