Self-Care/Self-Compassion Sunday

Today has been a day where I needed to focus on moi!! I've had a lovely afternoon of using self-care and self-compassion. What is self-compassion?(Hope you clicked on the link Kristin Neff is amazing.) Well, we know that when we have compassion for others we are using our strengths of kindness, empathy and deep listening. We are not feeling sorry for them, but we are right where they are, in the moment with them. We are a witness to whatever their thoughts, feelings or experiences are. Somehow we seem to be pretty good at doing that for others and then sometimes lousy at doing it for ourselves. Think about how hard we are on ourselves, how we beat ourselves up. We would never do that to a friend, so why do it to ourselves? Can you turn that compassion towards yourself? How can you turn it towards yourself? Here is where self-care comes in. What are some things you can do to take care of yourself. Not your house or your partner or children, but just yourself. Here are a few of the things I've done today.

• Went for a walk
• Took a bubble bath with really nice aromatherapy bubbles
• Read a delightfully lovely mystery (The dad did it! Don't tell anyone!)
• Took a nap in the sunniest spot in my house

I'm also about to head out to a movie with a girlfriend. I've been working party hard lately as we all are. It was important for me to stop and spend the day doing whatever it was that I wanted to do. Today worked out because my kiddos are with their dad. However there have been times where I've paid the teenager down the street to come over just so I could go sit and flip through magazines at Barnes and Nobles for a few hours. Whatever makes you feel good. If you need some suggestions, friends at The Self-Compassion Project have been compiling a great list of things to do to be kind to yourself. I hope you will follow their tremendous blog. What are you going to do to take care of you today????

Be Well Friends