Self-Compassion Sundays

(air whooshing) (computer mouse clicking) (gentle chiming music) Headspace Studios. (gentle serene music) Hi, and welcome back to the "Sunday Scaries." It's Dora here. So this is the first of four episodes in February that will focus on taking it a little easier on ourselves. A self-compassion combo pack, if you will. It's no coincidence that we're diving into this topic right now. Recent studies report that this is the week most people bail on their New Year's resolutions. And by most, I mean 91% of people. That's almost all of us, and that can lead to disappointment in ourselves and exacerbate our Sunday Scaries. So, for today, I'd love to reframe that disappointment and break this common emotional pattern. Regular listeners of the show know I'm a former psychiatric nurse. I've had firsthand experience seeing the consequences that come from setting hyper expectations. Yet, knowing this, even I can get sucked into the compare and despair culture of social media. I remember back in January seeing people post that they were going to train for a marathon or organize their entire home, or find the love of their life. And I found myself thinking, "Do I need to be doing that?" But then I sat with it and landed on, "No, I really don't." And as I looked at those social media posts, I noticed a common theme of overwhelm. The thing people wanted to change was overwhelming, their urgency to change it was overwhelming, and their approach to change it was overwhelming. All of that overwhelm can make us lose sight of the tortoise and the hare fable we all know to be true, slowly is the fastest way to get to where you wanna be. So I think it's time we investigate this pattern of wanting to make drastic change immediately and being so disappointed when it doesn't work out. There's a meme out there that I love, and maybe you've seen it. It depicts a person tracking their restrictive New Year's diet. It's like, "9:00 a.m., three glasses of water, "egg whites, and an avocado. "12:00 p.m., kale salad and chicken breast. "6:00 p.m., pizza, ice cream, and an entire cake." Now, of course, binge eating is a very real experience for people, and I'm not trying to make light of it, but I do wanna point out that restriction or hyper goal setting can actually lead to our demise. When overwhelm and disappointment take hold, it's okay to feel your feelings. It's okay to cry. While it's difficult to completely stop negative thoughts, we can create a relationship with them to help interrupt this emotional pattern of unrealistic goals and disappointment that leads to overwhelm. When you find yourself thinking overwhelming thoughts, have a conversation with that inner voice. Remind yourself that you're human, and try to take it one step at a time. Treat yourself like you would treat a dear friend. Next week, we'll look at what it means to befriend yourself. But, essentially,...