The Gift of Self-Compassion for Christmas

Wellness Wisdom

Merry Christmas everyone! This is the most Wonderful and often the most Stressful time of the year. It can be a time of joy and sorrow, a time of overwhelm and happiness. What brings you joy this time of year?
Our focus for this month's podcast episodes is on "Gifts your Give Yourself." In this episode, Camille, founder of Wellness Wisdom, explores how we can let go of negative beliefs, and patterns. Camille explores our need for Self-Compassion in Health. It's easy for us to beat ourselves up when we overeat, stop exercising, or don't handle stress well. Camille shares how we can love ourselves through the journey of health. She talks about ways to combat our "inner-critic" and to stop the shame cycle. Camille explains the tenets of Self-Compassion as defined by Dr. Kristin Neff, a psychologist and researcher one of the leading experts on Self-Compassion.
Camille shares her own struggle with shame and disgust from the inner critic about her body image. She discusses what influences the inner critic and how she combats this voice in her head daily. Camille talks about how we can give ourselves compassion by; 1) Recognizing and validating our suffering 2) Acknowledging everyone suffers 3) Giving ourselves love kindness and compassion as we would a good friend. (Self-Compassion Break by Kristin Neff Ph.D.).
Camille believes self-compassion is necessary to find success in changing your health and habits. Camille says all humans make "mistakes", especially when they are trying to change something about themselves. Compassion means focusing on your resilience, your ability to notice something is hard, and to get up again when you fall. We show compassion all the time for those we love, but it's often most difficult to show this to ourselves. Camille walks us through positive health affirmations to prime your brain for success in 2019. Camille believe's that each of us has within us the answers to our problems, that we must give ourselves compassion, be courageous, and recognize how our thoughts influence our actions.
Self-compassion may promote healthy behavior by reducing negative emotions in the face of small setbacks and by “encouraging the positive emotions necessary to maintain motivation during the pursuit of health goals" (greatergood.berkeley.edu).
Camille will guide us through a "Loving Kindness" Meditation to increase positive emotions, empathy, and compassion for ourselves and others.
"You yourself as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection."
-Unknown