PRACTICING SELF-COMPASSION
Participating in compassion practices on a regular basis helps develop emotional resilience and a healthier relationship with one’s self. It has also been shown to decrease depression, anxiety and stress as it opens the heart to include all of one’s self allowing there to be more acceptance and kindness toward one’s self. Remember that self-compassion is simply giving the same kindness to ourselves that we would give to others.
The following practices can be used any time of day and only take a few minutes.
Breath of Compassion
Linking short nurturing statements with the breath.
Self-Compassion Break
The following Self-Compassion Break is inspired from the work of Kristen Neff, Phd researcher and author on self-compassion. This practice helps you take a break in your day to acknowledge any difficult emotion or challenge that are arising and meet them with kindness and compassion.
Loving-Kindness Meditation
To further our compassion practice we can practice loving-kindness meditation which begins with offering kindness and compassion to ourselves and then slowly expands to loved ones, strangers, and then even those we have difficulty with. By ever-expanding our circle of compassion we open our heart to all parts of ourself and our life.
“Loving-kindness is the ability to embrace all parts of ourselves, as well as all parts of the world. Practicing loving-kindness illuminates our inner integrity because it relieves us of the need to deny different aspects of ourselves.”