Hairshirt

When I judge myself it can be like wearing a hairshirt. This idea goes back to my childhood. When I was a girl growing up I had to say prayers to make up for my sins. In the old days of religion, wearing a hairshirt was a way of doing penance or of punishing yourself for doing something wrong. The hairshirt burns and causes pain to the skin.

Mentally I can wear a hairshirt by going over and over and over negative situations. I damage myself. I ask myself: How am I working on the situation? How long do I keep the mental hairshirt on? It brings me to the Fourth Step: Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves. I have to take my inventory. I have to be real with myself. There’s a time to suffer and a time to take the damn hairshirt off!

#asbonnieseesit

#willingtobecomereal