1569: Choose self-compassion over self-criticism
Sometimes the most counter intuitive advice is the best advice of all. So if you’ve stumbled this week, this one’s for you.
Episode transcript:
Good morning Daily Peppers and a very happy Friday to you. is the end of the week. It is so nearly the weekend and we have made it. Now it is fair to say we all have days where we get a lot less done than we wanted to, where we override our very best intentions and end up sticking the TV on or scrolling on our phones rather than working on our creative projects or doing something that we really wanted to do for ourselves. And there are other days where just nothing much is happening and we can't get ourselves to do anything. First of all, I think we have to remind ourselves that we are human having and we all get times like that. And secondly, I think this is a really important part. The way we react to ourselves and the extent to which we maybe catastrophize not doing the thing has a big impact on whether we're likely to do the thing we want to do in the future.
And also our sense of self confidence. The truth is that we all stumble. We all stumble fairly regularly some of the time. We definitely don't live up to our best intentions or the version ourselves we think we were. And the really counterintuitive truth is that if we were able to have more grace and compassion towards ourselves when we stumble, rather than letting it snowball and get away from us, we would probably have a much better time of sticking to our intentions and also being closer to that version of ourselves that we would like to be. I know I've been getting really frustrated with my own energy levels recently and I've realized that I tried to put about 50 hours into one 24 hour period. I have all these wild ambitions for any particular day. I do just one of those things and I'm pretty fucking knackered.
And then I get pretty grumpy. I start to get frustrated at my own body and it just ends up being really unsatisfying. But I found that on the days where I can shrug it off, I tend to have a much better next day. And I can reclaim the day a little bit more than the days in which I kind of set up camp and really give myself a hard time. And I've seen this with so many of the women I work with. Self compassion gets everybody so much further than self criticism. But because we are taught the exact opposite from a young age, and because society doesn't necessarily work like that, it can feel like a ridiculous notion that only turns out to be true when you try it. So as we get to the end of the week, I invite you to choose self compassion over self criticism and to forgive yourself of any stumbles that you've had this week, knowing that if anything, all it makes you is a wonderfully imperfect human like the rest of us.
See if you can spot where your inner dream shitter is absolutely catastrophizing and see if you can get to a place where you can just kind of shrug your shoulders and think shit happens and keep moving forward. And I really do think that action is self compassion's magical twin. If you can keep yourself in motion even with the teeniest tiniest steps and you can do it with some self compassion, then my goodness, you are gonna fly. So that's it for this Friday. I hope you have a fabulous weekend. I hope you practice lots of self compassion, I hope you keep going with the teeny tiny steps, and I hope you remember that you are a wonderfully imperfect human who adds more than you know to the world. I'll see you on Monday back here on the Daily Pep or in your inbox on Sunday. If you're part of my email community where I'll be sharing just how my latest adventure in Bulgaria is really going, you can join that email community by going to therebelrousers.com/letters.
And either way, I can't wait to see you soon. And remember that everything changes when you believe you matter.
Episode transcript automatically produced by Castmagic.io
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A short, snappy and sassy daily podcast to keep your internal - and external - dreamshitters at bay!
The Daily Pep! is the rebel-rousing, daily podcast for couragemakers, creative, multi-passionate and unconventional women. If you’re surrounded by people who don’t get who you are or what you do, if you want reminders you’re on the right path (no matter how scary it feels), or you’re sick of being your very own worst enemy, this is the podcast for you.
Every weekday, your host - writer, coach and professional rebel-rouser - Meg Kissack helps you build a creative and wholehearted life, one day at a time. Through short and snappy insights, reminders and stories, The Daily Pep! is here to remind you you’re not alone, and that everything changes when you believe you matter. Each episode is short and snappy, designed to fit in with (or help you start) your habits and routines.
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