Thank you for taking this Self-Compassion course. This is just the beginning. Remember, it is important for you to continue to do your exercises so that loving yourself and being kind to yourself become second nature. This can happen with awareness and practice.
One way of doing this is to use your withdrawal experience to nurture yourself and to soothe your pain. Treat yourself as you would, the person most precious to you in this life. Let your internal dialogue reflect the things you would say to that person. Be gentle in what you expose yourself to by limiting your time on groups where you are exposed to a lot of vicarious distress that affects you and triggers your own fear. Spend more time focused on the things you want to happen in your life, and on the things that soothe and uplift you.
Remember the main exercises:
- Become aware of your inner dialogue and your inner critic. This is the first step to making the connection. Use your journal for this exercise. Notice when you are being hard on yourself. Note the critical voice and what it says: “Pull yourself together.” “Don’t be a scaredy cat.” “Snap out of it.” “I am such a wimp”. Then, gently and without blaming or judging yourself, take those critical statements and re-frame them.
- Write to yourself, using your journal if you have one. Include nurturing statements and don’t be hard on yourself. Write every day. You can write whatever comes to you. It could be things people have told you about yourself, qualities you recognise in yourself. Keep speaking to yourself kindly, using soothing statements: things you would say to a dear friend. Be open and see what comes to you. The goal is for you to begin to feel comfortable with hearing yourself use kind, loving, comforting words and to practise being gentle and reassuring in your tone.
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Finally, I invite you to do the Self-Compassion quiz to test your knowledge and refresh your memory.
I hope this course has been useful and beneficial in some way, and that it will be the start of a life where you are able to treat yourself kindly and gently. Thank you.
Sincerely,
