Kindness means to show care and regard for someone, by being kind you are building a relationship that lasts for a lifetime. By being kind to yourself you help yourself to understand the real you. You start to know yourself better and it helps you to appreciate yourself. Kindness is what makes life easier because it shifts your perspective of life and you see things with a soft and accepting heart.
You need to be kind to yourself because you deserve it, you are the one who needs your attention the most. When you start prioritizing yourself you are practicing to be kind towards yourself. It has positive effects on your mental and physical well being. Kindness is also linked with stress reduction and creating an overall positive and a lively life.
What is Self Kindness?
We only think that kindness is like being nice and good to others, well that is not the case as Self kindness involves being good to yourself as well. You should give yourself time and there should be self acceptance in you. Like you care for your loved ones, try loving yourself and do things that you love and enjoy. Accept your mistakes and flaws rather than them making you feel ashamed.
Self kindness is the process of shifting from being critical of yourself to being confident in yourself. When you are kind to yourself you develop a sense of belief in yourself that helps you in facing life with open arms.
Why Is Being Kind to Yourself Important?
By being kind to yourself you help yourself in ways you can not even imagine. It is important to be kind to yourself as it plays a role in the development of your personality. You learn new ways to approach yourself with ways once unknown to you. When you are kind, you are accepting towards yourself.
By actually showing love and affection for yourself, you create a version of you that demands your care and attention. Self kindness equips you with the ability to better understand and accept your shortcomings. It helps you build a more positive and a healthier life because when you care for yourself you will avoid the things that might harm you.
The Link Between Self-Kindness and Productivity
Productivity can be seen as a product of self kindness. Self kindness drives your imagination and memes you look for newer ways to appreciate and acknowledge yourself. When you try to be kind to yourself, you get more attached to your own self and look for ways to make you feel happy and relaxed. This leads you to be more creative and you think outside the box. You develop ways that are more productive and rewarding. It has a mood enhancing effect and whenever you feel good you automatically find ways in things that make you more productive.
Can being kinder to yourself improve your mental health?
You get a feeling of relaxation when you are kind to yourself, it then helps you in stabilizing your mental health as well. Being kinder to yourself means that you are nicer with yourself, you speak and understand yourself better. You can avoid the common triggers that make you stressed.
By following this approach you are basically helping yourself and improving your mental health as well. Kindness by virtue is a positive trait and by practicing it either with others or yourself you get positive. Positive attitude helps you with enhancing your mental health.
How can I be kind to myself?
If you are trying to be kind to yourself you need to practice enough and different techniques. These techniques help you in identifying who you really are. Once you know your real self, you can easily practice kindness on your own self.
Talk Kindly To Yourself
The best practice that helps you to be kind to yourself is talking to yourself. You talk with yourself like practicing how you would talk nicely to someone. Consider yourself on the other side and try being nice with yourself. Talk politely, you should feel your own warmth through your own talk. It helps to practice and initiate the process of being kind.
Practice Gratitude
Gratitude and thankfulness are the precursors of being kind to yourself. When you are content with what you already have you don’t force unnecessary burden on yourself. On the other hand if you are greedy, you always want more in your life. Even if you try to be kind to yourself you won’t be able to do so because you will be forcing yourself above your capacity.
Compliment Yourself
When you like someone you compliment them, same should be the case with you when you do something nice or something positive, you should compliment yourself. Complimenting yourself is a way of appreciating yourself and it boosts your mind and body. It helps you in attaining a positive outlook in life.
Perform Acts Of Kindness To Others
By being kind to others you are trying to be kind to yourself. Kindness follows a two way approach, you give with one hand and receive it with the other. By performing even small acts of kindness you help others, you can make someone’s day. It will help you in building a nicer personality, the one that people like and care about. You should never hesitate in helping others as even the smallest of the act of kindness can have a great impact on others.
Focus On Self-care
Self care is what you do to take care of yourself. You do things that make you happy and avoid ones that have a negative impact on you. You practice the things and procedures that focus on self improvement. You set your priorities and this helps you in defining your determinants for self care. You feel relaxed if you care for yourself because you are the one who matters.
Reflect Daily
When you reflect on yourself daily, it helps you to understand yourself better. Start practicing it by reminding yourself what you have to do. At the end of the day tell yourself what you did throughout the day, were you good or bad. Assess your performance and judge yourself. This provides you a chance to improve your actions and make yourself kinder than you already are.
Be Responsible For Your Wellbeing
It is you who is responsible for your own well being and not the others. By understanding this you can help yourself the most than anyone else can. When you realize this, things become easier for you and to be kind to yourself looks like an easy task. If you yourself can not control your well being, you can not expect that others will help you. First you need to help yourself then let others help you.
Invest In Your Interests
Investing in your interests means investing in yourself, it indicates self care and compassion for yourself. You understand that you need time for yourself, and by managing it you manage to be yourself. Most of the time people get carried away with their lives and do not give themselves proper time. This affects their personality and forces a change in them. This becomes unhealthy for you to cope with and damages your integrity.
Spend Time In Nature
Nature has the power to heal you, it doesn’t matter how low you are feeling, nature can uplift your mood. It shows how important it is to interact with nature and transfer the positives to yourself. Firstly, spending time in nature is in itself a self care activity, moreover it helps you to relieve stress and easen yourself. The goal of to be kind to yourself can be achieved easily by interacting with nature.
Think Of The Opportunities
When you see the thighs from a different perspective it opens up numerous opportunities for you. You understand that if you will be kind to yourself and show yourself respect, you will be allowing yourself to hop onto the opportunities that arise from it. Like if you have lost a certain thing rather than consuming your mind over it, think about what’s next to come. How can you get its replacement and it was in the better of your interests.
Taking Care Of Your Physical Health
Your physical health is very important alongside your mental health. A healthy mind and body is what drives your optimum growth and development. When you are physically dull, you have a negative energy attached to yourself. You can easily overcome this by giving yourself time and engaging in exercises, meditation and yoga. A proper and nutritious eating is also necessary for maintaining a healthy body. A healthy body is positive and energetic and it makes it easier for you to achieve your goals.
Being kind to yourself helps you stay positive and strong in difficult times. Read our article on Effective Tips to Stay Positive and Resilient During Tough Times for more ideas.
Ways to show compassion for yourself
Compassion is linked with understanding and having the feeling that you need yourself. It is your love for yourself that you can never let go of. You show compassion for yourself by realizing your actual worth.This way you can be compassionate about yourself. It is the process of directing your kindness towards yourself because you are worthy of it. You can practice being compassionate for yourself through simple techniques.
- You can start by simply noting down your accomplishments so that they give you a sense of relief and triumph. It doesn’t matter how small the achievement is, it should be worthy for you.
- A positive and happy mood is where productivity begins and the best way to do so is to smile. Smiling releases your stress effectively.
- Do things that matter to you and sideline the ones that are just meaningless activities and not linked with your growth.
- Don’t criticize yourself to the extent that you start feeling low. It should be limited and should involve constructive criticism.
- Rather praise yourself over the activities and tasks that you accomplished. Small events also contribute to it.
- Set a daily routine of reminding yourself of your positives and negatives throughout the day. It helps in overcoming your shortcomings.
How to Stay Consistent with Self-Kindness
Consistency always comes with practice, the more you practice a certain thing the easy it is for you to keep it with yourself. Same is the case where you try to be kind to yourself, you start by taking small baby steps. You set achievable goals and it helps you to scale down the magnitude of the task.
When you achieve these smaller goals, you get a sense of relief and you move closer to your ultimate destination. By practicing this technique you can equip yourself with kindness. You do small acts of kindness as they pay you back in various ways. This also makes your belief firm and you realize its actual worth. Consistency is the key in you being kind in the long run.
How to Practice Kindness to Yourself
Practicing kindness on yourself is involving yourself in the things and the situations that create an overall positive impact on you. You can be kind to yourself, like how you are kind to others. If you find it difficult to pinpoint your start, just consider how you would be kind to others.
This practice will help you identify various ways of showing kindness and then you can adjust them to suit yourself. Try these acts on yourself and measure their impact on you. You will definitely see a visible change in you. For example you can show someone kindness by complimenting them, similarly you can compliment yourself over anything and it will boost your morale. It is as simple as just practicing on yourself and see the results.
Why is it so hard to be kind to yourself?
It can be hard for some to be kind to themselves because it is not as easy as it seems. Everyone is different and has their own views and perspectives. It is also associated with the upbringing and the circumstances that they were raised in. So it makes it hard for them to be kind and accepting.
It is a common misconception that only by being harsh on yourself can you expect great results and softness doesn’t help in this regard. Well it is not right, you need to have self acceptance and belief in yourself to succeed. You can be kind and caring and still be successful. So these misconceptions don’t hold any ground and should be treated accordingly. When you are kind to yourself you automatically are on the path to be successful and the ones who hold it tight have higher chances to succeed.
How Being Kind to Yourself Impacts Your Mental Health
Being kind to yourself is directly linked to your mental health. Kindness starts from your mind and then you adapt to it. So basically your mind is the center of origin in this whole situation. There are various ways your mental health is impacted by self kindness.
- Self compassion is linked with reducing anxiety and stress levels because it gives you a feeling of love and affection. When you are in love with yourself you are relaxed and it helps you to be kind and accepting.
- Self kindness can boost your self esteem because kindness is a positive quality and positiveness directly impacts your mood.
- Your overall happiness is also dependent on you being gentle to yourself. Being harsh to yourself only worsens the situation while accepting your real self and showing yourself sympathy can ease your mind.
- When you are comfortable with yourself you can better manage the stress you are exposed to. You know your strengths and weaknesses and it helps you with your mental health.
- You get resilient when you love yourself. You understand how to tackle the situations and overcome them. You master the art of bouncing back if hit by setbacks.
Practicing gratitude is a wonderful way to show kindness to yourself. Check out our article on All Things to Be Thankful For and Simple Ways to Find Joy to learn more.
How to Still Get Stuff Done, Even When You’re Kind to Yourself
You can think that being gentle and kind to yourself can hinder your way to success. You get limited in your approach and it minimizes your chances of survival. That is not the case, kindness helps you to overcome the difficulties or even prevent them from happening. You can get the stuff done even when you are kind.
Do Good Things Because They Are Ways To Love Yourself
Doing good things is obviously a way to show love and regard for yourself. You assure yourself your love by engaging in good and positive activities. You are hesitant in doing anything that might affect your love for yourself.
Stop Doing Harmful Things Because That’s The Kind Way
It is simple, harmful activities will harm you. No one who loves themselves and cares about what will happen with these harmful things, will attempt to do them. It is a killer for self love and an obstacle in your way of being kind.
Become Bigger Than Yourself
You need to believe and understand that you are bigger than yourself. This thought is enough to refrain you from any negative activity. You have the power in your own hands and you just need to use it wisely.
Conclusion
Showing kindness to yourself is the way to go in these times as there is already so much harshness all around. By being kind to yourself you are trying to be kind to others. This practice helps in building a more accepting and a polite society. Kindness can help you in every step of your life and is very beneficial in enhancing your mental and physical health. Be kind to yourself because you matter.
Frequently Asked Questions
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