Being kinder to myself
sharing four things I'm putting into practice to achieve it
It’s an intention I realized I needed to put into practice this year. I shared a vulnerable incident on social after a visit with my wellness coach back in January - I cried over the frustration of not losing weight after a two year focus. But I realized, I cried because I was ashamed. Ashamed of my weight. Ashamed of my reaction to it. Ashamed that I still have this internal dialogue even after all these years.
And then I realized, I wasn’t being kind to myself in a lot of ways. I was “doing all these things” but not listening really well to what my body needed. The thing was I felt like my stomach was in my chest all the time. With work stress, travel, being a mom, wife, friend and family member and then this added shame around my body, I was not feeling a lot of peace.
So I started asking myself, what does it look like to be kinder to myself this year? Here are four things I came up with and so far, it’s making a difference:
I am asking myself what I need - a question that helps me determine this from this lens is to say, “what does being kind to yourself look like today?” For example: I’ve committed to 3-4 weight lifting sessions a week. When I woke up one morning really sore and not feeling 100% instead of doing said workout, I opted for a stretch, cardio, and a mobility workout instead and gosh, did I need it!
I’ve started meditating in the morning again. Why I stopped this, I don’t know but after a month of spending 10 minutes a day meditating that “stomach in my chest feeling” is not rearing its ugly head. Additionally, I woke up on a trip after a rough night’s sleep with the intention to head to the gym. I couldn’t figure it out but my anxiety was off the charts (guessing poor sleep). So instead of a workout I knew that being kind to myself that day meant getting my nervous system into a better place. I did this 20-minute breath work meditation and no lie, it got rid of that awful, anxious feeling.
I did dry January. Ya’ll, I know I’ve shared about this but I really didn’t think this would make a difference and WOW, it has! I’m seeing how drinking can contribute to my anxiety and I feel so much better - more myself, less inflamed.
My internal conversations about my body are not very nice sometimes - so when these thoughts crop up I remind myself to be kind. This is harder for me than the other things but reminding myself to be kind helps put me in check instead of harping on “the thing” I don’t like.
Curious, what do you do to be kinder to yourself?