Kindness during hard times

Everyone is talking about Kindness, how beneficial it is and how we should all be kind to ourselves. And many of us are. On the surface. When we are doing the right things, we are so good at showing kindness to ourselves. But this is the easy bit.

What we need to do now is shut off the voice that says: ‘you stupid thing!’ when things aren’t going so great. When we have had too much rubbish food, when we went back to an old unwanted habit, or when we didn’t do all the tasks we so had meticulously written down on our to-do list. This is when we really need to show kindness to ourselves, and do some or all of the following:

1. Take a deep breath in and slowly breathe out
2. Look in the mirror and say: you are doing ok!
3. Smile to yourself
4. Plan how to get back on track
5. Do at least one little thing you enjoy, e.g. paint nails, read, have a walk, or even do nothing
6. Give yourself a hug
7. Say to yourself: I have strength
8. Acknowledge you have succeeded before so you can do it again
9. Say ‘I love you’ to yourself
10. Take good care of yourself

Because that’s when we need it most.