Inner Mean Girl Cleanse – Week 1

I was supposed to do some sort of introductory post about the Inner Mean Girl Cleanse before the program began last week, but some of the very reasons I wanted to take part in it in the first place prevented me from doing so. I’m trying not to beat myself up about it, but again, that’s part of my problem. My Inner Mean Girl.

I signed up to be a Self-Love Ambassador for the 40-Day Inner Mean Girl Cleanse. What does this mean? It means that I’m tired of being so hard on myself. I’m not perfect, and I should stop trying to be. I need to stop comparing myself to other women and thinking they’re better than me. I need to stop beating myself up when I make mistakes. I need to accept my flaws. I need to be able to accept compliments gracefully and not be so self-critical. I need to quit the self-sabotage. Does this sound familiar? I think we all do it on some level.

I hope my friends and fellow bloggers will support me on my journey to tame my Inner Mean Girl, and I encourage all of you to sign up for the program as well!

The program kicked off with a fabulous conference call with Susan Ariel Rainbow Kennedy, aka SARK. If you missed it, you can listen to the SARK call recording online.

Week 1 Topic: Gossip

For the first week in the IMG Cleanse, our challenge was GOSSIP. Negative talk is toxic, and it’s too easy to fall into that trap. One positive thing I discovered about myself in tackling gossip is that I don’t take part in it very often. Celebrity gossip does nothing for me, and my real life friends don’t often tell me juicy details about things as they happen. I’m out of the loop. There’s plenty of gossip out there on Twitter, but enough of the people who matter to me are also following the IMG Cleanse, and I found it pretty easy to ignore the rest of the people who were gossiping online.

The one-minute affirmation was a little more meaningful to me, though. We were told to start each day saying this out loud: “Today I speak only from my heart. I leave gossip and toxic words behind. I speak only from my heart.”

I may not gossip, but there are plenty of other toxic words out there. Lately, I’ve been saying plenty of them about myself. There was one night when I spectacularly failed to stop myself from badmouthing…myself. I’m trying to get better about that. It’s hard for me to move on from mistakes I’ve made. I still berate myself sometimes for stupid things I did before I was even married – and that was 10 years ago! This happened to be about something far more recent, but it’s hard to let go. I’m trying, though. It’s just really hard to get my Inner Mean Girl to shut up sometimes.

Tomorrow starts a new week with a new focus. I say, bring it on!

Disclaimer: I have received no compensation for my participation as a Self-Love Ambassador. This is something I am doing for myself. If, however, you would like to sign up for the fall session of Inner Mean Girl Reform School, which starts on September 22, 2010, I do receive a commission.

Christina Gleason (976 Posts)

That’s me: Christina Gleason. I’m a writer, editor, and disability advocate. I'm a multiply disabled autistic lady doing my best in this world built for abled people. I’m a geek for grammar, fantasy, and casual gaming. I hate vegetables. I cannot reliably speak, so I’ll happily conduct business over email or messaging instead.