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Healthy self-compassion is one of the keys to self-love and care. And this has nothing to do with selfishness.
Feeling compassion for yourself is absolutely normal, because each of us has difficult periods in life and it is worth learning to support ourselves, and not make it worse. RBC-Ukraine talks about what self-compassion is and how to recognize it, with links to foreign sources.
What is self-compassion and how to recognize it
For some reason, we all have developed barriers within ourselves that prevent us from showing love and care for ourselves. And we did this to protect ourselves from the difficult realities of existence and condemnation.
But there is another way to feel safe. When we acknowledge our difficulties, respond with empathy, kindness, and support ourselves during difficult times, our lives change. We can learn to accept ourselves and our lives, despite internal and external imperfections, and give ourselves the necessary strength for further successful development.
There are several ways to learn to sympathize with yourself and thereby help you live fully, without looking for disadvantages, without judging yourself and giving yourself the right to make mistakes and failures, because this is normal.
- Step one. Learn to empathize with yourself as well as with your friend. You accept him for who he is and will support him even in those moments when you understand that he is wrong now or has made serious mistakes. So, start treating yourself the same way.
- Step two. Start being kind to yourself. For some reason, when we make a mistake, we immediately begin to scold ourselves instead of supporting ourselves. A friendly attitude towards yourself blocks the impulse of aggression and allows you to treat yourself the same way as others.
- Step three. Accept your imperfections. We are aware that every person can make mistakes, we have failures, setbacks and difficult periods in life. We easily accept this in others, but it’s time to take care of ourselves.
Healthy self-compassion is one of the keys to self-love and care. And this has nothing to do with selfishness.
