Being Kind to Yourself

This past week I am really enjoying meditation focused on loving kindness of self. We all go through times that we need a bit extra TLC and well, I’ve had one of those weeks! I caught a virus (somehow, masks and all!) that left me with a head-in-a-vice headache, dizziness & sleeplessness for 11 solid days (yep, I counted), there was a massive “situation” with one of my siblings, my 83-year-old mother went in for major surgery and my youngest turned 18. You could say that it was a full-on week!

To keep up with everything I focussed on being super kind to myself so that my internal world was at least at peace, or in the least, coping. Sometimes you are the only one who will be kind to you. Let’s face it, this world isn’t always kind. Our family isn’t always kind (I still love them but hey, it’s true). Our workplace isn’t always kind. If we solely rely on others we may never get treated kindly!

So this week, when I was so exhausted and feeling totally lousy, I decided to make ‘kindness to me’ a priority. One afternoon I crashed on the couch and watched a fav Netflix series. The day after my son’s 18^th I was so spent, as my head wouldn’t stop pounding, so I put on my “happy music” while I cleaned the house – and even danced & sang along while I vacuumed! Most mornings, despite the headache, I would spend time sitting in silence as I enjoyed my morning cuppa, just satisfied in “being” not “doing”. And a couple of times this week I also practised a loving kindness meditation - ahhh, total bliss.

What is your default when you’re stressed or have a full-on week? Do you factor in self-care to give yourself the best possible foundation to be active from? Or do you spend most of your days emotionally reacting to what’s going on around you feeling like everything is spinning out of control?

I still went through a myriad of emotions in this week. I think I went from happy to angry, deeply sad to celebrating, empathetic and back to sad again all in the course of one day! Being kind to yourself doesn’t mean that we pretend everything is totally fine & simply “carry on”, it means that you allow yourself to feel what you need to feel, without judgement. It means if I am angry, I allow myself to feel angry. It means that if I am exhausted, I listen to my body and rest. It means that if I need to cry, I cry. Or if it means I need to hear that I can do this, I tell myself “you’ve got this! You are SO amazing!” (yep, some of my self-talk!!). If it means I spend some time in meditation, releasing the stress and allowing myself to feel whatever it is that I’m feeling and turn my affection and love to …me, I do that.

I’m not perfect but I was so proud this week for the kindness I showed to myself – it wasn’t always something I practised in the past.

What are some changes that you might bring into your world this week to support yourself and show loving kindness? The changes don’t need to be massive, start with something small to add to your week and once that’s a new-found habit you can add to it. Notice how much your capacity increases as you intentionally engage in self-kindness and love!

I’d love to hear how you experience this for yourself so drop a comment below about your self-loving kindness adventures. Share about what you do to be kind to you, I might just like to try one of yours practises!