Choose Self-Compassion

Choose compassion over beating yourself up.

What do you do when you have cravings? Do you give in and beat yourself up afterwards?

Making the healthiest food choices every single time can be challenging. Especially if you’re stressed out at work or life throws a curveball at you!

It’s so natural to want to soothe your emotions with your favorite comfort foods.

However, there may be a price to pay. Your digestion gets messed up and you end up with painful symptoms like cramping, bloating, or acid reflux.

When we “misbehave”, the tendency for most of us is to beat ourselves up.

But beating yourself up doesn’t get you to stop doing anything! 

Self-compassion

There’s been a lot of studies that actually support and prove that one of the most powerful tools for developing new habits, and in this case around food, is…

… self-compassion!

Self-compassion is a very powerful tool for self-regulation of healthy behaviors. 

It involves three constructs: self-kindness versus self-judgment, common humanity versus isolation, and mindfulness versus over-identification.

To practice self-kindness is self-explanatory. 

However, realizing that you’re not alone in your struggle (common humanity) and putting some distance between who you are and what you do (mindfulness) are a crucial aspect of self-compassion.

When you have this inner dialogue, “oh, I ate the thing that I’m not supposed to or that’s not healthy,” you feel guilt or shame.

But shame and guilt perpetuate more feelings of shame and guilt. 

AND, they don’t release the stress that maybe you were trying to cover up by eating the things “you’re not supposed to eat.”

Cultivating self-compassion however, is one of the strongest tools to help your brain rewire and develop new neural pathways. And it helps you make the healthy changes that you’re looking to create in your life. 

“Compassion that doesn’t include yourself is incomplete.”

I think it’s the Dalai Lama who said this.

So, are you ready to be more compassionate towards yourself?

Are you ready to love yourself not just when you’re proud of yourself, but also during the times it feels like you’ve failed yourself?

#mindfulness #selfcompassion #ayurveda #ayurvediclifestyletips

Get started today and download my ebook on the 3 Dieting Mistakes to Avoid and have a more compassionate approach to eating!