February is often known for being a month dedicated to and all about love. But February is not only about valentines and sweethearts; it can also be a month for self-love and self-care, fostering relationships with family and friends, and loving others.

Self-love is about intentionally taking care of yourself and who you are. It’s about getting enough rest, and giving yourself the time, love and attention to recharge your mind, body, heart and soul. It’s about giving yourself grace as you grow and learn.

This theme-appropriate article was originally shared as “A Message to Everyone on the List: Relearning Behaviors” in our old OxyChat Message Room, encouraging compassion for yourself and finding joy in your strength.

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Relearning Behaviors

by Miranda Carreon

I have been posting to these lists for a while now and it is wonderful to see the support and encouragement that everyone gets from everyone else. I am uplifted by the fact that complete strangers can come together and face an issue that is the cause of so much pain for men and women.

But there is also something that dismays me. I also see many chastising themselves for making mistakes. This seems to be to reflect a very common and destructive notion that if you are imperfect in your discipline then you must feel bad and think bad things of yourself.

Through the Oxycise! system we are attempting to relearn how to listen to our bodies, how to fuel them, how to give them what they need to function well. I would hope that this reformation would also extend to our ideas about how to treat and listen to ourselves.

Punishing and shaming ourselves is a learned behavior just like cleaning our plates. And I would hope that we could learn compassion for ourselves and gain the understanding that we are retraining deeply ingrained behaviors, not an easy task. To shame ourselves for not getting this process right the first, or even the fifth, time would be as silly and needlessly self-destructive as doing the same while trying to train yourself to be ambidextrous.

While on the road to treating your body better please give a thought to the person inside the body. Realize that this is a massive undertaking, it will require strength but that you need not feel “bad” if you aren’t perfect. All of us are strong because we have fought this battle and we have now chosen to win it rather than submit and rather than destroy ourselves.

Rejoice in your strength, remember compassion for yourself and keep breathing!