Weaving Self Compassion Into Your Day

Practicing self compassion helps you give yourself permission to be an imperfect human, without beating yourself up or feeling unworthy if you’ve made a mistake.   This creates a sense of safety within yourself and with yourself and opens the door to accepting your wonderfully imperfect self. 

Establishing a self compassion practice can help you be kinder to yourself, and the benefits show up in countless ways.  

Weaving self-compassion into your day can help to build resilience, set better boundaries, and resist exhausting perfectionism.  Taking a few moments to show yourself compassion when you’re in crisis gives you a pause, it creates a space for you to connect and be with your emotions, and it gives you room to shift your thought process.  Instead of an automatic reaction, it gives you an opportunity to respond in a kinder and more effective way.  

How would your inner dialogue change if you kept the spotlight on self compassion instead of on criticizing yourself?   

Next time your inner critic shows up, try showing yourself some compassion and see what happens.  

Some simple self compassion practices: 

1. Put your hand over your heart and say something kind to yourself out loud.

2. Say something supportive to yourself, like you would to a good friend or loved one.

3. Give yourself permission to rest, take a break, and decompress.  Even if all you’ve got is 5 minutes.  ESPECIALLY if all you’ve got is 5 minutes.  

4. Grounding exercise or meditation to come back into your body to calm racing thoughts.

5. Snuggle your pets, or a friend’s pet if you don’t have any.

Here are some Self Compassion Phrases to say to yourself:

1. I’m sorry this is so hard right now

2. May I be kind to myself

3. May I accept the present moment and be kind to myself

4. May I be present with all of my emotions 

5. May I accept myself and all of the emotions I’m carrying right now 

6. May I show myself the compassion that I show others

How compassionate are you with yourself?  Take the Self Compassion Test created by Dr Kristin Neff.  Dr Neff is one of the leading researchers in the field of self compassion, and her website is a wealth of resources, practices, and meditations to help cultivate self compassion.

Are you ready to embark on a self compassion journey?  Schedule a free discovery session to see how coaching can support you in this.