Note all the things you do today that feel right to you. Consider yourself a friendly reporter, who writes down what he observes. He does not note faults. In this situation, his pen can only write favorable observations.
All day today do this.
Furthermore, right now, write down what makes you happy. Not what makes you unhappy. Only what makes you happy. Many little things make you happy, and they occur every day. So then, why are you not happy?
As you note happiness, you will have more of it.
Again and again, We come to where has your attention been?
I am happy with you. Why cannot you be happy with yourself?
You are good at finding fault where there is none. Be as good at finding blessings where there are many. There is more blessing than fault. You have been in the habit of looking for dust particles, and you have been finding them, inside you, outside you, all around you.
When you are displeased, who is displeased? Who has displeased you? You have displeased yourself. Be honest now.
You have been a hard taskmaster. No matter what or how you do, you are not well-pleased. It has been hard for you to live with yourself. It would be hard for anybody.
Today no word of criticism is to come from your lips. Nor from your thoughts.
Today direct your thoughts in the direction you would like them to be. Be on the lookout for thoughts you want. Substitute new thoughts for the ones that have plagued you. Turn your thoughts around. Think the opposite of what you have been thinking. Do this as an experiment.
In other words, I am telling you to be good to yourself. You have been like a warden to yourself. You have kept a tight rein. You have imposed impossible tasks upon yourself. You keep raising the bar higher. "Aha", you say. "I have failed again. I was right all along." Or someone else was right about you, you think, when all along, they were not. In any case, you have considered yourself an adept at insufficiency.
Now you will consider yourself an adept at staggering abundance. You will wonder how you can carry around so much goodness and mercy and intelligence and health and beauty of heart and mind and body. And you will wonder how so much wonderfulness can come to you so fast and so continuously. You will be dazzled by all your good fortune.
And you will wonder how I could create a world of such beauty. You will be amazed at the sky and the air and the ground under your feet. You will be amazed at the miracle of your feet.
You will kiss your life today.
You will admire your life today. No more admonishing. Only love toward yourself today and how you live the life so generously given you. You will love whatever you trip over, and you will no longer trip over it. You will love every frustration that comes and it will no longer be frustration. Whatever you have hated you will love. Whatever has made you impatient, you will welcome. Whatever faults you have dwelled on, you will turn them into favors. Your faults do have another side, and you will turn to that. If you have been moving too fast, you will slow down. If you have been slowed down, you will move faster.
You will become a self-sufficient lover of yourself and the world. You will be blessed, and you will be a blessing. You are a blessing. So be it.