Self Compassion

Katherine Warren

Usually what I’m working on shows up in my yoga teaching and this month was no different.

I’ve been reading a lot about the power of being kind and understanding toward yourself and how much of an instant shift that can make not only for yourself but for those in your life.


In my yoga class this month, that showed up in a big way. The whole theme of the class was centered around this idea. I asked the class to conjure up an image of something they love, that brings that kind of warmth and buzz of gratitude I hope we are all familiar with in some aspect of our life.


Then I asked them to shift that same feeling to themselves, that warmth, love and kindness. I asked them to direct that inward.


We moved and breathed, and then I asked them to do a tree pose. I do a lot of balance work in classes because you HAVE to be present and in the moment to be upright. However, this pose can cause a lot of the opposite of loving thoughts to come up as you bend and wave and fall out of the pose. That damn, “I’m not doing this right,” or “I SHOULD be doing this better,” can creep in.


So I just had them do the pose once, and then I had them repeat it and I encouraged them to find that self-kindness, compassion, and love again. I asked them to go easy on themselves no matter how much their tree wobbled in the wind.


And you know what, the visual, physical shift in that class was immense. Anyone watching that class would have seen it and it was beyond cool to watch. Postures softened, shoulders dropped, and every. single. tree pose. out of 16 in the room got taller, prouder, and lighter. Wow.


I left that class reeling from what I had seen, with a renewed commitment to this work in my own life. If you deal with depressive thoughts this is a tough one, because a lot of times it’s easier to just tell those negative thoughts to shut up, to discount them and get mad at them rather than be kind and compassionate towards them.


But I’m telling you if you saw what I saw you’d understand (or be reminded of) instantly what kindness and compassion can do for you. If you are struggling with your feelings or thoughts, can you acknowledge them instead of fighting them? Can you say to yourself, “I totally get why you’d feel that way and I’m here for you?” Can you sit with those thoughts like you would with someone else who is grieving or suffering?


Kindness and compassion over everything. That’s my new work.


_

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