Eight Ways To Be Compassionate With Yourself And Toward Colleagues

All of 2020-2021, and now the first half of 2022have been like no other. We are generally so busy with our lives being pulled in multiple directions, and this past year we have been forced to slow down. I would have thought that the act of slower living, and simplifying our lives, it would be easier to engage in self-care activities. Working from home, becoming a teacher, baker, master organizer and decluttering guru were things that we all quickly adopted while being confined to our homes.

They generally seemed "fun" at first however, as time passed many of these areas became increasingly challenging and stressful for many.

When you become aware of how your thoughts affect your behaviour you are more easily able to change your mood and emotions. We often talk to ourselves far more harshly than we would talk to anyone else and wonder why we don't feel more motivated to "do better next time" or seek for perfection. Perfectionism in my opinion is overrated!

Self-care and mindfulness are two words that we are hearing a lot about in the recent months. While this is an important topic, I want to share a few quick ways that you can incorporate both of these into your day-to-day personal and professional life.

1. Ask yourself, what would be best friend ask me what I needed right now?

2. Trust yourself that you are capable of making good decisions.

3. Know that it's okay to ask for help. This is not a sign of weakness. You don't have to be all things to all people. When you try show up in this way, everyone only gets a few of the best parts of you because there isn't enough to go around.

4. Learn that by saying "NO" to some things, it allows you to say "YES" to others. I learned that by saying "No, I don't have to clean my house on Friday night", I can have an at-home date night with my husband and connect after a challenging week.

5. Share your challenges with your children. Model what it looks like to be brave and admit when you are feeling insecure or challenged. It will help them to also feel more inclined to share when they are feeling scared for frustrated and ask for help.

6. Roll out the emotional welcome mat on the days that it feels right. Some days, I wake up and ask myself how I feel, welcome what is there and then make a choice whether I need to spend some time in those feelings or change my energy and move on.

7. Check in often with others, actively listen for cues that they may not be sharing everything that they are feeling and invite them to talk about their concerns, acknowledge the efforts of others and express gratitude and thanks as much as feels genuine and authentic. Helping others benefits both the receiver and the giver. By helping, it takes the focus away from yourself and by knowing you have helped someone else, it releases oxytocin which makes you feel calmer, more relaxed, happier and aids with social bonding.

8. Breathe, this can help you turn a situation from a reactive one to one where you can take a few moments to reflect and make decisions that feel meaningful and that will build resiliency.

Learning to incorporate these elements will help to strengthen your resiliency to recover after a challenging or series of challenging events, provide support to others and the comfort of knowing that you are stronger than you probably give yourself credit for. You got this!!