You can catch more flies with… self-compassion

Hey Reader!

Are you hard on yourself? Do you pressure yourself to succeed and beat yourself up for any perceived shortcomings, signs of weakness, or vulnerability?

How’s that working out for you?

We often get into the habit of berating ourselves out of a genuine desire to motivate ourselves to do better. It may even work for a while. But, over time, this can have the opposite desired effect, leaving us stuck and unable to ever live up to our standards.

This can also have negative impact on our health. It can keep us in a chronic state of stress that can wreak havoc on many systems of our bodies.

One of the most helpful practices in my healing journey has been self-compassion. 

Contrary to popular belief, self compassion doesn’t make us lazy or give us permission to not try, it actually can give us the fuel we need to try again without burning out.

The below shows the difference to our efforts when we apply beratement vs. self compassion

Self compassion has three main components:

Recognizing your emotions and acknowledging that it’s hard right now
Recognizing our common humanity, that everybody feels this way from time to time
Offering yourself kindness in the way we might offer it to a loved one or a child who is hurting

This practice is helping me be less of a perfectionist, less hard on myself, and generally live with more ease. It also has had a tremendous impact on recovering from chronic pain!

Self compassion has been scientifically proven to:

Increase strength
Increase productivity
Increase connection with others
Reduce stress
Reduce pain

Here are some self compassion exercises I highly recommend.

Kristin Neff’s Self-Compassion Break
- Audio Version
- Written Instructions
Tara Brach’s RAIN of Self-Compassion

And here is my own exercise of self soothing and loving myself into safety.

video preview

I would love to know how self compassion helps you to dust yourself off and try again and feel more at ease. Please share your story with me!

With love,

Coach Katie

1:1 Coaching

Feeling stuck in your habits, mindset, health goals, or life in general?

Coaching helps you organize your thoughts, make discoveries about what’s really important to you, and create movement toward overall well being.

Benefits of Coaching

Increased self trust, confidence, and direction
Engagement in behavior aligned with core values
Greater ease
Less overwhelm
Increased contentment
Improved relationships
Stronger boundaries
Clearer thinking
Better sleep
More energy
Decreased irritability
Personalized, effective tools and strategies to get more of what you want!

Sounds pretty dang good, huh?

Coaching is individualized. I work with: people in pain to help them implement the tools to settle their nervous systems, people who are looking to make a major life transition, people looking to eat better and exercise more, people wanting better boundaries with others, and more!

Coaching is a partnership. You are committed to showing up for yourself and working toward change and I am committed to helping you see your strengths, set your strategies, celebrate your successes, learn from your failures, and grow into the best version of yourself you can be.

Ready to learn more? I encourage you to schedule a no-commitment, free initial session with me to understand more about how this approach can help you, see if we’re a good fit, and walk away with a tangible next step toward something you’re currently working on.

Schedule a Free Intro Session

Did you enjoy this email?

I love hearing from you! What are you thinking about these days? How did this email land for you? Want to vent, celebrate, discuss? I’m here for it all!

Contact me at katie@coachkatiewellbeing.com or via my website coachkatiewellbeing.com