Self-Compassion is Productive

I speak to a lot of students who regularly experience negative self-talk, constantly doubt themselves, and put themselves down. Often, I catch them calling themselves lazy for minor procrastination when they probably needed that break.

I want to highlight once and for all exactly why being so hard on yourself is so impractical and showing yourself more compassion can help you succeed!

Five ways self-compassion helps your productivity

1. Growth mindset

   Self-compassion encourages the belief that improvement is possible and boosts our desire to do better which cultivates a growth mindset and helps us connect with our more authentic self.

2. Confidence

   By prioritising our needs we can boost our perceived self-worth and belief in our own ability, which will connect us with a new level of confidence in our potential and value.

3. Stress management

   By increasing our self-compassion we can more effectively identify stressors, calmly accept our level of control and manage our behavioural response.

4. Time management

   By prioritising our needs and what is helpful for our wellbeing we can spend less time worrying and avoiding stressors and instead spend our time more wisely and take intentional action.

5. Work-life balance

By addressing our needs and prioritising what is helpful for our own wellbeing we can more easily set boundaries and organise our time more efficiently.

How to increase your self-compassion

1. Prioritise non-negotiables

   We all have non-negotiable essentials for our mental health they are Sleep, Water, Movement, Nourishing Food and Social Interaction, but unfortunately, sometimes we let these slip, which lowers our perceived worth which is unhelpful, we need to prioritise our needs.

2. Self-care

   It's helpful to include self-care practices in our daily to-do lists alongside work tasks. These activities can be anything that involves taking care of yourself, like skin-care, relaxation, hobbies, creative practice, walking, baking or dancing.

3. Forgiveness

   Stop punishing yourself for mistakes and perceived failures, none of us are perfect, instead, we need to remind ourselves that we are enough. We can practice this by having a note in our workspace with permission not to be perfect and a sick note for when we don't feel our best.

4. Mindfulness

   Practising reflective exercises, including mindfulness, is proven to promote self-compassion through lessening judgement, labelling and comparison and instead nurturing and accepting ourselves.

5. Self-love

Introduce more self-directed kindness by reliving past successes and reflecting on strengths and positive qualities. We can also allocate time at the end of each week to celebrate our accomplishments and achievements - large or small.