FLIPSIDE OF MIDLIFE®️ : ANOTHER PIECE OF THE PUZZLE
If you caught my last two episodes, you know this is the final piece of February's feel-good trifecta. We covered self-acceptance and self-love, so now it's time for self-compassion.
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I'm Karli Newman, and you're listening to FLIPSIDE OF MIDLIFE®️, a podcast for women in midlife and beyond who want to feel connected, helpful, confident, and more satisfied with life than ever before.
I show up here each week to help you grow your awareness and knowledge to expand into the powerful and resilient woman you are.
It is one of my greatest joys to help you foster a positive mindset and encourage you to explore the endless possibilities on the FLIPSIDE OF MIDLIFE®️.
Get my feel-good emails, work closely with me in my coaching programs, virtual workshops, and private retreats, or connect with me and other women in midlife and beyond at my wellness events. I'm also launching my monthly ELEVATE membership on March 1st.
You can learn more about all of that on my shiny new website, flipsideofmidlife.com.
Self-acceptance, self-love, and self-compassion intersect in more ways than one, so the definitions can get blurry. I like to think of them as having a symbiotic relationship.
Self-acceptance is accepting your identity and all parts of yourself as they are.
Self-love is fostering positive feelings about yourself.
And self-compassion is showing yourself kindness and understanding.
Self-acceptance is the foundation that helps you foster self-love, and self-compassion allows you to cultivate both acceptance and self-love.
Take a minute right now to imagine the quiet power that simmers inside of you when you finely tune these skills.
How will it feel to fully accept and love yourself?
How will self-compassion change the relationship you have with yourself?
Okay. Okay. I know you're curious and ready to make it happen. Good thing I'm here with three ways you can hone your self-compassion skills.
You know the drill, my friend. This might be something you want to take notes on, so grab your journal, notebook, or your favorite app. If you need to come back here later for that, the time marker will be in the transcript and the show notes for you.
Time Marker 2:19
As I mentioned earlier, self-compassion helps you nurture your self-acceptance and self-love. Some of the most challenging times to accept and love yourself are when you fail or experience hurt. These are the times when you may lean toward anger, frustration, and hypercritical self-talk. By approaching mistakes and suffering with compassion, your inner voice can reset and shift to a place of love and light where judgment does not exist.
One way to practice self-compassion is to acknowledge your pain. Instead of burying your feelings of suffering or wishing pain away, allow yourself to feel them. Give yourself the space you need to feel your full range of emotions and process them in a healthy way.
With kindness and understanding, there is no judgment on feeling a certain way. There is only the realization of how you feel and what emotion it is.
Another way to practice self-compassion is to practice mindfulness. Mindfulness prepares you to observe without judgment. With mindfulness, it is possible to allow your emotions to flow through you and notice how they affect you in body, mind, and spirit. You can decipher the nuances between emotions and assess them neutrally rather than harshly judging them.
And a third way to practice self-compassion is to learn to see mistakes and failures as learning opportunities. Rather than critically evaluating your performance, objectively look at situations and your actions to find the nuggets of wisdom within. Because they are there, my friend. It might take some doing to see them. It might take some time to uncover them.
But once you do, how can these experiences inform your actions and your decisions in the future?
Practicing self-compassion can remove the pressure you put on yourself to be perfect. It can help you overcome fear of failure and it can build confidence in your ability to overcome challenges. It makes you more resilient.
Do you see how it can contribute to a more satisfying midlife and beyond?
In this time of life, the powerful trio of self-acceptance, self-love, and self-compassion can be the special sauce that you've been missing. I encourage you to take a close look at each of them to strengthen your skills and experience the shifts that provide peace and contentment and the best relationship with you that you've ever had.
If you want to chat with me about your self-acceptance, self-love, or self-compassion, take advantage of my Wellness Hours Chats. These are 60-minute virtual calls where you can get my advice, share ideas, or even ask me for a pep talk.
It's you and me chatting about your wellness challenges and concerns. Book a time with me at flipsideofmidlife.com.
This is a wrap on today's episode, my friend. Next week, I'll be here to help you use self-care to influence your self-acceptance, self-love, and self-compassion.
Thanks for listening to FLIPSIDE OF MIDLIFE®️. I'd love to hear from you, my friend. What got you thinking during this episode? Email me at karli@flipsideofmidlife.com, or if you're listening on Spotify, use your mobile app to respond to my Q and A and poll questions.
Wherever you listen, it's helpful if you hit that button to follow, subscribe, rate, or even write me a review. When you do, the algorithms help other women in midlife and beyond find this podcast. Please help me spread the word!
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