Compassion has been at the forefront of contemplative practices to facilitate emotional healing for thousands of years.

Compassion and self-compassion have been widely researched over the past 2 decades and it has been found that practicing self-compassion has been found to lower levels of anxiety and depression.

Many of us, including myself, have found it difficult to practice self-compassion. This can be for various reasons such as having little or no experience of compassion, feeling we are undeserving of compassion, believing it’s a waste of time or just too difficult.

Typically, people who have compassion for others often have little for themselves. This can be detrimental, because to separate ourselves from the compassion we extend to others, means we often look to others for validation and a sense of worthiness.

Self-compassion can improve our self-worth and self-esteem, as when our positive feelings towards ourselves comes from within, we do not define ourselves by the judgement or evaluation from others.

Self-compassion is a way of honouring our strengths and weaknesses without judgment as we become more mindful of the present moment, and realise successes and failures come and go but do not determine our worth.