No matter what your goals or intentions for the new year, there is one essential practice that can help you achieve them - self compassion!
Whether you know it by this name or self care or self love, this essential practice involves being kind, patient and encouraging to yourself. And it's called a practice - cause it takes practice! Especially when your self talk and other habits have likely been on auto pilot for years!
If you are trying to change habits or achieve something new it can be hard! If your self talk is negative, harsh or unrealistic, or it makes you feel shame, guilt or inadequate, it's unlikely to motivate or encourage you to continue once your initial willpower has been exhausted.
How much more pleasant would it be to come from a place of love and treat ourselves with kindness and patience while achieving our goals?
Would you speak to your best friend or a young child in the way you speak to yourself?
While self talk is one aspect of self care, other areas include
- Stress management and taking time out for ourselves
- Booking in regular holidays or breaks at the start of the year, before we get to a burnt out stage
- Assessing what we spend our time/energy/money on, and if that's inline with our values and goals
- Working on our boundaries
- Working on our beliefs and mindset
- Being mindful and present and not being consumed by our past or future worries
- Accepting ourselves wherever we are at, but also working on improving any areas of our life where we'd like to grow, learn or change.
There are many books, podcasts and websites which can help you in this area, but a good start is just becoming aware of your self talk and automatic assumptions/beliefs - as this is with us all the time and has such a huge impact on our quality of life. A lot of times we aren't even aware how we talk to ourselves as it is so constant and automatic!
So take time to become aware of your self talk so you can then work on improving it to be more compassionate, supportive and encouraging as you work toward your goals!
If you would like some support in achieving your health goals this year, book in for a consultation here.
Marion McConnell is a degree qualified Naturopath who helps women with stress, hormone imbalances and thyroid issues. The clinic is located in New Farm Brisbane, and consultations are also available via Skype. You can contact Marion here.