March at Becoming Lab is dedicated to self-compassion – the practice of treating ourselves with kindness 🙌
Truth to be told, if someone had told me that one day I would intentionally practice self-compassion, I would have probably said, “you’ve got to be kidding me.”
Throughout my life, being hard on myself drove me to accomplish and excel.
When I made mistakes, failed, felt uncertain, or unworthy, I would criticize myself thinking: “It’s not enough. I have to do better. Learn faster and try harder”.
I just ignored the pain, set goals, pushed myself to achieve and it seemed to work.
However, one of the hardest lessons I learned on my parenting journey was that being hard on myself simply didn’t work. 😨
Self-criticism didn’t lead to the progress I wished for.
Parenting was already hard. Ending the day with guilt and shame was draining.
Thankfully, a leadership workshop I took back then, led me to explore self-compassion. 🧐
At first, I was worried that practicing self-compassion would inhibit my growth & motivation, and teach me to accept sub-performance.
Later I learned that self-compassion means we accept ourselves even if our performance is not where we want it to be.
I had to unlearn and relearn to honor my wellbeing and growth rhythm because…
Parenting is not a race.
I get to choose my growth pace.
And so do you 🧡
I believe we all want to teach our kids to treat themselves with kindness, especially when things are hard.
Let’s do the same for ourselves.
Becomers weekly challenge
Think about your parenting struggles or challenges (for example, when the kids refuse to collaborate or when you struggle to show up as you want).
Reflect:
How do these experiences impact you?
How do you feel? What are you telling yourself? Do you judge yourself in any way? How do you treat yourself?
What are the differences between how you treat yourself when you are struggling and how you treat your close friends when they struggle?
“You’ve been criticizing yourself for years and it hasn’t worked. Try approving of yourself and see what happens.”
With care 💛
Liz
P.S. Know someone who might benefit from learning this? Please forward this email and invite them to join this path 🙏
