Episode 114: Four Myths and a Truth about Self-compassion

If there is only one idea that will help you navigate the path from self-doubt to self-belief – it’s compassion.

It can feel so normal to criticize ourselves when things go wrong and blame everything on our own shortcomings, but embracing self-compassion can be a gamechanger.

So what’s this episode really about? 

• Why compassion is so important and why we resist it.  
• I share the four myths and a truth about compassion to help get rid of any preconceived ideas that exist and show how self-compassion empowers leaders to succeed by using empathy, creativity, emotional intelligence and cooperation. 
• There is a strong body of empirical research that shows that self-compassion is enormously helpful as a skill and perspective – especially for working through major emotional struggles. 
• There are big differences between self-compassion, self-pity and self-indulgence – but it’s easy to get these mixed up! 
• How I work with clients to make space for compassion in the way they talk to themselves. 
• I share an exercise, from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, which you can implement today. This will help you to understand your responses to situations and nudge yourself towards self-compassion.

Why you should listen

This episode is perfect for you if you’re struggling with self-doubt and you feel like if you don’t keep judging and criticising yourself, you’ll lose your ‘edge’.

Resources mentioned 

Book: Fierce Self-Compassion, How Women Can Harness Kindness to Speak Up, Claim Their Power, and Thrive by Dr Kristin Neff

You can quote me on that…

“Self-compassion just means that when times are tough, you treat yourself like you would treat a very close beloved friend.” – Sas Petherick

“If you can offer compassion to others, you can absolutely learn to offer it to yourself” – Sas Petherick

“When we’re looking at what we believe and why, we can end up with a nice logical story that sounds good on paper – but it doesn’t touch us emotionally.” – Sas Petherick

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