If you feel lost, disappointed, hesitant or weak, return to yourself here and now and when you get there, you will discover yourself like a lotus flowery in a full bloom, even in a muddy pond, beautiful and strong🌷
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Often times we feel unhappy with ourselves. We feel like we are not strong, capable or simply just not good enough in general
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We hold high expectations towards ourselves but how many times we remember that we are a living creature that needs kindness and compassion?
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I want to present to you the 3 components of Self-Compassion, from the book “Self Compassion” by Kristen Neff, which helped me in situations where I was beating myself up a little too much
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- SELF-KINDNESS:
When we make a mistake, we often use harsh, critical internal language “You’re so stupid, I’m ashamed of you” we would be unlikely to say such things to a close friend or a strange. And even when our problems are far beyond our control we often don’t give ourselves the sympathy we would give to a friend in the same situation. With self kindness, we are supportive and understanding toward ourselves. Our inner dialogues are gentle and encouraging rather than harsh and belittling. So instead of continually punishing ourselves for not being good enough, we kindly acknowledge that we’re doing the best we can.
. - COMMON HUMANITY:
EVERYONE fails, makes mistakes, and gets it wrong sometimes. We don’t always get what we want and are often disappointed. This is part of the human experience. We are not alone in our imperfection, rather our imperfections are what make us human. However we feel isolated from others when considering our struggles and failures, irrationally feeling it’s only “ME” who is having such a hard time of it. We think that we are abnormal or something has gone wrong and we forget that making mistakes is actually is normal. With self-compassion, we take the stance of a compassionate “other“ toward ourselves.
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MINDFULNESS:
When we are mindful, we are experientially open to the reality of the present moment without judgement. We must be willing to turn toward and experience our painful thoughts and emotions in order to embrace ourselves with compassion đź’™