5 Ways You Can Be Kinder To Yourself

They say, ‘in a world where you can be anything, be kind!’While it is often emphasized that kindness is free and we must sprinkle it everywhere, how about sprinkling some on ourselves, first?

We tend to be self-critical and harsh towards our own selves most of the time. So, it is important to begin to be kinder to ourselves in order to spread kindness around us.

Whether it is about a minor slip at work or gaining a few extra pounds, we tend to beat ourselves up until we begin to drown in guilt and feelings of failure. Well, it’s time to cut yourself some slack and stop with the constant self-criticism. 

We bring to you five ways you can be kinder to yourself, starting today.

Begin your day with “I can” and “I will”

We often find ourselves thinking along the lines of “I didn’t meet my target this month, I can never be the top performer” or “I am such a terrible public speaker, I won’t be able to lead the presentation”. This kind of outlook could bring down your confidence and motivation. 

Begin your day with positive self-affirmations of what you’d like to accomplish that day and replace the negative sentences in your mind with positive ones like, “I can exceed my target next month and I will work towards it” or “I will ace this presentation with confidence”. Trust us, the results of positive affirmations can truly surprise you.

Stop comparing. Start living.

Nothing good ever comes out of comparing our lives to that of others, be it our paychecks or physical features. Remember, everyone is on a different journey and life isn’t a graded curve where we are awarded extra points on how we measure up against others. It doesn’t do any good to compare our worst moments with what might be someone else’s best moments. Instead, try and focus on yourself and your positives, remember nobody is perfect and celebrate yourself for who you are!

Indulge in some me-time and self-care

Work on following a healthy lifestyle, go on long walks by yourself, sleep for eight hours a day, and keep yourself and your surroundings clean. Apart from this, don’t forget to pamper yourself from time to time. It could be a spa session or you can cook yourself your favourite meal and put on your favourite show or even practice a calming meditation. These habits help you spend some time with yourself to self-retrospect and love yourself more. It also helps in unwinding and taking some time off for yourself.

Accept failures not only successes

An important part of being kind to yourself is to set realistic goals. Follow the SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound) approach to set goals and pat yourself for every small win. This will help with motivation and boost your morale to continue setting goals for yourself. Celebrating success is important but so is accepting failures. Failures are evidence of the fact that you tried and trying is sometimes more important than winning. 

Be your own best friend

A timeless piece of advice is to treat yourself the way you would treat your loved ones. When your loved one is faced with an adverse situation or has failed a task, do you demotivate them and criticise them or do you treat them with utmost kindness and support? 

When feeling demotivated, always ask yourself a question, ‘How would I react if this happened to my loved one?’ You’ll find the answer is always to treat them gently and that’s your cue to do the same to yourself!

Finally, remember that kindness begins with the understanding that we all struggle, so be kinder to yourself and to those around you and watch the magic it creates! 

Tell us in the comments if you follow these or any other acts to be kind to yourself or those around you. 

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