6 magical things that happened when I quit judging other people

How cold turkey quitting my judgment addiction changed my life.

Photo by Kimson Doan on Unsplash

Last week, I published a piece called “For Lent, I’m giving up judging other people”. It wasn’t one I planned to write, and wasn’t a challenge I anticipated myself attempting.

But there I was, sitting in a coffee shop in Memphis, TN on my way to Arkansas reflecting on a huge life change I hadn’t seen coming.

You can read more about it in the original article, but basically on Valentine’s Day (and the first day of Lent), my boyfriend told me that I have a problem with judging other people.

In response, I decided that I was going to stop.

My therapist’s first question when I told her about the challenge was, simply:

What are you going to do instead?

The answer to that question has probably been the most beautiful part of the challenge because when I started, I wasn’t sure. I didn’t know what would fill the judgment-sized hole in my heart or how I would spend my time when I wasn’t critiquing the way other people spent theirs.

Since deciding to curb my judging thoughts into kind words and grace-giving actions and thoughts, here’s what’s…