When patients first come to see me they often expect their treatment plan to include dietary and lifestyle modifications as well as a prescription for herbal remedies, natural supplements, and/or a prescription for bio-identical hormone therapy. What they may not expect to receive is a prescription that we all need in order to experience healthier and happier lives, a prescription for self-compassion.

A prescription for self-compassion? Is there even such a thing? The answer is, yes. At least in my medical practice.

While modifying our diet and lifestyle to improve our nutrition, sleep, and ability to manage stress is undoubtedly important, it is the cultivation of a healthy relationship with self that has the most positive and powerful impact on our journey to health and wholeness. Without self-compassion, we remain anchored in the resonance of judgment and shame, and we cannot heal in a container of shame.

Self-compassion acts as a doorway to change and thus is a doorway to better health.

Compassion is defined as the feeling that arises when we are confronted with another person’s suffering and are subsequently inspired and motivated to relieve their suffering. While compassion and empathy often go hand-in-hand, empathy is, in contrast, the feeling that arises when you are feeling and sharing another person’s emotion. Compassion essentially is the expression of empathy in action.

Self-compassion is a powerful way to achieve emotional well-being and contentment in our lives, helping us break free from the destructive patterns of fear, negativity, and isolation. We develop self-compassion when we have learned how to give the loving-kindness of compassion not only to others but also to ourselves. When we allow ourselves to be held in the gentle and loving container of self-compassion, we are able to turn toward our own suffering with empathy and take appropriate action to help relieve ourselves of our own suffering.

By practicing self-compassion, we learn how to practice mindfulness, where we can hold our experiences in a state of balanced awareness rather than defaulting to a pattern where we ignore, diminish or exaggerate our own pain and suffering. As we practice soothing our agitated minds in the presence of compassion rather than judgment, we’re better able to orient ourselves toward that which gives us joy and make healthier choices. As we cultivate greater depths of self-compassion, we naturally experience less anxiety and depression, our lives are infused with a greater sense of peace, optimism, and happiness, and we feel connected with others in our experience rather than feeling isolated and alone in our experiences and suffering. 

Self-compassion has the capacity to transform us from the inside out, supporting our own healing at the deepest level.

As we grow in our ability to hold compassion toward ourselves and others, we no longer remain “stuck” in old destructive patterns. We stop beating ourselves up repetitively whenever we perceive ourselves as having faltered because we realize that this only enhances our feelings of inadequacy and insecurity. By learning to hold ourselves in love, understanding, and forgiveness we stop taking our frustrations out on others we love or out on ourselves. We curb our risk for chronic dis-ease because we have broken free from painful self-limiting beliefs that would drive us to turn to things like food or alcohol to soothe our feelings of inadequacy.

When we learn how to be compassionate towards ourselves we learn how to embrace our own humanity and our imperfections. We learn how to turn to ourselves with kindness and gentle understanding when we feel we may have made a mistake or not done something “right”, rather than defaulting to the habit of harshly criticizing and judging ourselves. It paves a path to wholeness by teaching us to view our so-called mistakes as opportunities for growth and healing. It calls us to expand our thinking beyond our own perceived limitations so that we can have a greater understanding and vision of what is possible when it comes to our health and happiness.

Interested in learning more about how cultivating greater self-compassion can transform your health and happiness not tomorrow, but today?

Book a 15-minute consultation with me to you begin unlocking the transformative healing power of self-compassion.