Caring for yourself

Self-compassion involves treating yourself the way you would treat a friend who is having a hard time.The Mental Health Passport can help you learn more about Mental Health and find self-compassion all year long. 

This short video reviews the three components of self-compassion:

• Self-kindness vs self-judgement
• Common humanity vs isolation
• Mindfulness vs over-identification

Mindful self-compassion can help you increase:

• Happiness 
• Life satisfaction 
• Self-Confidence  
• Physical Health  

Tools for practicing self-compassion (video)

Exercise: How do I treat a friend?

Step 1

Close your eyes and reflect for a moment on the following question: 
Think about various times when you’ve had a close friend who was struggling in some way- had a misfortune, failed, or felt inadequate-and you were feeling pretty good about yourself. How do you typically respond to your friends in such situation? What do you say? What tone do you use? How is your posture? Nonverbal gestures?
Write down what you discovered.

Step 2

Now close your eyes again and reflect on the next question:
Think about various times when you were struggling in some way-had a misfortune, failed, or felt inadequate. How do you typically respond to yourself in these situations? What do you say? What tone do you use? Your posture? Nonverbal gestures? 

Step 3

Finally, consider the difference between how you treat your close friends when they are struggling and how you treat yourself.
Do you notice any patterns?