Cultivating Self-Compassion
If your compassion does not include yourself it is incomplete - Jack Kornfield.
Cultivating self-compassion is something that I work on with every client, every one. Us humans love to be our worst critic. We love beating ourselves up when out of 100 things we do in a day, we do 1 thing not that great. Yet, when a friend or family member is being critical of themselves we don’t say, “yeah, you are terrible, what is your problem, you are always screwing up”. We give them compassion.
Self-compassion is showing the same love, nurturing, kindness to ourselves that we would with a loved one. Simple concept. For many of us, our inner critic takes over and we do the exact opposite of self-compassion.
If your inner critic is too loud, try the attached exercise to practice self-compassion. The more you practice the quieter your inner critic will become.