Eye roll

I am so good at rolling my eyes. Just ask my husband. I'm convinced that I'm an expert at it, because when I was a teen and people used to tell me I was pretty (or give me any kind of compliment for that matter) I'd roll my eyes. I still catch myself doing it sometimes, but I seriously had to TRAIN myself to receive compliments. If we're being totally honest I don't think I could have trained myself to receive them, if I didn't practice giving them as well. I wasn't really very good at that either. I was probably better at being jealous and more mean to myself as a result. I found that the more I actually smiled and said something genuinely nice to someone, it was easier for me to say thank you (and maybe even believe it) when someone said something nice to me.
I used to roll my eyes (of course) when those "self help" books used to say things like: "repeat over and over- I'm beautiful". My 16 year old self was like, "Ya right, what crap". Maybe it would have worked, I don't know, I never really tried it (I was too busy rolling my eyes). But I can honestly say that once I broke the bad habit of saying, "shut up", when I was given a compliment and instead, said thank you, I started to actually kind of believe what people said. Yes, its true, I could only start really doing this because I was a much happier person by then. But you know, I might have been a little happier then too, if I actually smiled more.  If I gave more compliments. If I didn't have a bad attitude when someone took the time out to say something sweet.
So, if you're anything like me and the next time someone gives you a compliment and you feel like rolling your eyes, Pause. Take it in, smile and say thank you. You might actually start believing it.

Always,
Tova
TEENminded.com