Self-Compassion Break

Goal

Reduce stress and improve emotional well-being through kindness and understanding 💡

Problem

Finding it difficult to manage overwhelming emotions and self-criticism.

• Struggling to show kindness to oneself in times of stress
• Having a hard time acknowledging personal achievements 🎯
• Difficulty in dealing with emotional turmoil and negative self-talk

Solution

Practicing a Self-Compassion Break to replace negative self-talk with loving-kindness and understanding. 

In a nutshell:

1. Recognize when you’re in pain or feeling overwhelmed ☝️
2. Tell yourself that everyone experiences difficulties, and it’s okay.
3. Speak to yourself with kindness, as you would to a close friend.

My Take

The Self-Compassion Break is a big one! It just works.

While practicing this technique, I am often surprised to notice how harshly I judge myself sometimes. I mean, it provides no added value or benefit.

Instead, by making minor tweaks in my thought patterns and replacing self-criticism with kindness and understanding, I’ve experienced a massive difference in my emotional well-being 😌

Some science-related notes: The comfort you feel during this practice can be attributed to the release of oxytocin and a decrease in cortisol levels in the body.

So overall, it’s really a simple way to shift my focus from self-criticism to self-acceptance. And as a fan of mental work, I need to emphasize it again: this technique is highly effective. In fact, it makes things in life sooooo much easier and contributes to enhancing your positive thinking.