Give Yourself Some Slack: Self-Compassion (Part 1)
So I started working on this episode a few weeks ago when I first started my series on Giving Yourself Some Slack... and you know what, I really thought that I'd be able to bang the whole self-compassion thing out in one episode... I mean how hard can this whole self-compassion thing be, right?
Oh...
OOOOhhhhh...
So yeah, I had to split this episode into two parts - I just didn't think through everything that I was going to want to include and as that list grew and grew I realized I didn't want to try and jam everything into a single episode.
In this episode we're going to focus on the difficulties of self-compassion and then talk a little about mindfulness - next week we'll be going into the ideas of self-kindness, common humanity and some other ideas I've been playing with.
This Episode's Top Tips
Self-compassion can help with ADHD because it can help us realize that our self-image and self-doubts are not hardwired - we can change and we don't have to beat ourselves up to make that change happen.
We need to understand the difference between guilt and shame. Guilt is: I did a bad thing. Shame is: I'm a bad person. Guilt is a healthy coping mechanism, while shame can lead to self-destructive habits and behaviors.
One of the most effective ways to counteract shame is to shine a spotlight on it, but be sure to do so only when you're in a safe supportive environment.
Mindfulness is a way that we can practice seeing the world for how it really is - a great mindfulness exercise is the 5-4-3-2-1 grounding exercise where you list 5 things you can see, 4 things you can feel, 3 things you can hear, 2 things you can smell and 1 thing that you can taste.
