Practicing Self-Compassion - Jane's Mindful Musings

Jane Witherspoon is a Canadian expat adventurer, yoga instructor and passionate rambler who recently relocated from Panama to Denia, Spain.

I was going to talk about something entirely different and then I was planning my yoga classes for the week and I love the intention I will be talking about so much that I decided to share it with all of you. Many times the intention that speaks to me is what I may be struggling with in my own life.

How many of us practice being compassionate with ourselves? Do we embrace all parts of who we are, the unwanted parts, the imperfections, our perceived shortcomings? The human condition is complicated and none of us are flawless. And yet, we self criticize when we are not perfect. Perfect in thoughts and actions, how we look and how we chose to live our lives.

Yes as women, I believe, we are more susceptible to self-criticism especially when it comes to our appearance and feelings of being inadequate. Our culture often celebrates the young, those who are self-assured and self-confident.

But here's the thing, self-confidence can make you feel better about your abilities, but when we have self-compassion we are encouraged to turn inward and recognize our flaws and limitations. This is not a bad thing, when we self-reflect and acknowledge who we are we can honestly review all those parts of ourselves. Including the parts that we don’t want to look at or the parts we shy away from accepting. But, this can create a positive change in our lives.

When we sit with this and practice self-compassion we can recognize that our value and worth is unconditional. This is not always an easy path to start down and I struggle with being compassionate with myself. But, it allows me to confront memories and events that I may not want to take responsibility for. It allows me to accept who I am and my limitations. It allows me to be kinder when evaluating my appearance and aging body.

Accepting that there is no such thing as perfection, that we all make bad decisions in our lives and that nobody's body is perfect, this is part of being human in all its messiness.

We all change as we move through life, not only our mindset but our physical body as well. But, if we open ourselves up to self-compassion, we can choose to find forgiveness and acceptance.

And so my Sole Sisters, as you ramble through your week, practice some self-compassion and embrace every part of what makes you who you are.

The truth is: Belonging starts with self-acceptance.

Your level of belonging, in fact, can never be greater

than your level of self-acceptance, because believing

that you’re enough is what gives you the courage

to be authentic, vulnerable and imperfect. - Brene Brown

Compassion isn’t some kind of self-improvement

project or ideal that we’re trying to live up to.

Having compassion starts and ends with having

compassion for all those unwanted parts of

ourselves, all those imperfections that we

don’t even want to look at. - Pema Chodron