The perfectly beautiful Sally Bacharz sits on her couch looking left with her head on her hand, questioning if she needs to be perfect — Sally is a guest columnist for “The Flip,” *our* column that illustrates how to take a [perceived] negative about ourselves and flip it into a positive about ourselves. This photo of Sally was taken by her daughter, Eden, age 10.

Perfectly. Imperfect.

I say “I am sorry” a lot. I have a bit of a strong personality, and sometimes not enough of a filter. I have been known to offend a person or two (or 50!) in my history. I recently had a situation where I did what I do sometimes: I let some pent-up anger regarding a certain controversial topic come out sideways and I offended some close friends and created a nice bit of drama. I often talk about staying away from drama, I teach my kids not to get involved in drama, but there I was, stirring the pot. It took a good two weeks to dig myself out. Afterward, I was filled with regret and continued to beat myself up. I did some journaling, crying, reflecting, and lots of talking to other friends. I wished I could have a do-over and avoid the whole situation. How does a type-A perfectionist who suffers from “good girl syndrome” reconcile a messy and sometimes unpredictable dark side? I often fight the urge to go back in time. Take back those parts I regret. Sometimes I wish I could re-live my entire life perfectly, using the wisdom I have now to go back and have a do-over of my whole life. Then, be totally perfect going forward! That sounds so amazing! But it is obviously ridiculous. I am fairly certain that in the next few decades, I will make more mistakes, offend a few more people, and do or say more things that I wish I could take back. So I recently had an idea: what if we all just accepted ourselves as perfect already? Perfect with all of our imperfections. Perfect without having to strive for actual perfection? I believe that we are all souls having a human experience for the purpose of learning lessons. So if that is the case, we all are supposed to be imperfect and make lots of mistakes so that we can learn and grow and evolve. And what if, instead of looking outside for acceptance from everyone else, we give that to ourselves? What if I told myself, “I am perfect as I am,” every day. With my faults?

“Each time my mother comments on how grey my hair is getting, I remind myself, “I am perfect as I am, and I earned these grey hairs! ”

Each time my kids laugh at my jiggly belly, I remind myself, “I am perfect as I am. This belly was their first home and that is amazing!”

Each time I forget my filter or say something I regret, I give a genuine apology and remind myself, “Yep – that’s exactly what I am supposed to be doing – making mistakes and then learning from them.

Bravo! I am perfect as I am.” Each time you notice something “imperfect” about yourself, remember that you are supposed to be this way. When you make a mistake, congratulate yourself, and remember that you are doing exactly what you are supposed to be doing. And each time someone offends you, remember that they, too, are imperfect and evolving. Send them some love. We might just be able to change the world, one imperfect step at a time.

Sally Bacharz is a Certified Classical Homeopath at findingbalancellc.com. Sally is passionate about holistic health and supporting her clients on their healing journey using the amazing system of medicine that is homeopathy. She lives in Duxbury, MA, and when she isn’t hard at work on her clients’ cases, she can be found at the beach, taking long walks with her dog or on the trampoline with her kids and being perfectly imperfect.