Self-compassion or Self-criticism

by | Sep 22, 2023

Self-compassion or Self-criticism

Do you give yourself a hard time?

Do you feel guilty when you take time out for yourself?

Is it time you gave yourself a break?

But how can we give ourselves a break?

We all know self-criticism is unhelpful but it can be a hard habit to break. When things go wrong it can be helpful to reflect on why, not so we blame ourselves but to help us to learn from our experiences.

But often we reflect, ruminate and go over what we could have done differently in a very judgemental way.

We all know this isn’t helpful but as I said it can be hard habit to break.

Practicing self-compassion

If we’re able to develop the habit of practising self-compassion rather than criticism we’d feel a whole lot better.  We have more energy and enjoyment from life.

But have you ever tried practicing self-compassion?

You may have tried reciting affirmations but is reciting them enough.  Do you actually belief what you’re saying?

We need to feel it in our bones

For self-compassion practices to be effective we need to feel it in our body rather than reciting words in our mind.

When was the last time you offered your body caring comfort? Like wrapping yourself in a blanket and enjoying the warmth. Truly caring for yourself like you would care for a sick animal or child.

We don’t have to be sick to offer ourselves comfort. We can acknowledge that what we’re going through is tough and we need to take time out from being busy and doing.

Self-compassion

Exploring self-compassion practices

The theme of my next self-care retreat day is giving yourself a break.

Not just a break from day to day but a break from judgement and criticism.

We’ll be exploring a wide variety of practises that are simple and easy to do.  If you find one that works well for you keep doing it.  In order to change our habits we need to make new ones stronger. The only way of doing this is through regular repetition.

So if you currently have a practice that works for you make sure you do it.  If you’re looking for new ideas to build your self-compassion skills you might like to come along to the retreat day.

Find something that works and stick with it

There’s loads of advice online around self-compassion practices, do your research, try different things and when you find something that resonates for you keep repeating it.  There’s never a magic fix, most techniques take a bit of time to become really effective so pick something that appeals rather than continuing to search for a magic solution.
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