Before we go on with the habits or exercise that helps to release stress, you should know why self-care or self-compassion is important for one’s self. Though self-care and self-compassion are two different topics — Self-compassion is lengthening compassion to oneself in difficult times. Caring for yourself, and feeling compassion for oneself is very important. It means that you are kind to yourself and understand yourself when confronted with negative feelings or failure.
Having compassion for others is the same thing as for yourself. Self-compassion also helps you to lead a happy and healthy life and for that, you need to care about yourself. You need to honor yourself, accept your feelings, and accept your humanness. Life is not that simple. You will face obstacles and you have to fight back because you don’t have any other option left.
As life goes on, you experience a lot of things, it changes you either for the betterment or for the worst. Things will never go according to your will. Some days you will succeed and some days you won’t. It is not in your hand, but you can do what is in your hand that is to respect yourself, to feel compassion about yourself, to accept reality. You need to open your heart and face the reality instead of fighting with it, only then you can feel compassion for yourself. Read to know more.
How to Motivate Someone to be Self-Compassionate?
The famous psychologist suggested four ways to encourage self-compassion. The points are written down below:
1) Physically give a dose of self-compassion
You need to comfort your body. Take rest, eat all healthy food, give yourself enough time. Go for a walk or cook food, anything you can do physically to feel compassion about yourself. Do anything you like to improve compassion towards yourself.
2) Write down to yourself
It may sound weird, but it is very effective. You can write down a letter to yourself describing a situation that was quite painful for you. Admit your feelings without blaming anyone.
3) Encourage yourself
Encourage yourself always. If something bad happens, encourage yourself, in the same way, the way you would encourage your friend. Give yourself the same empathy that you would give to your friend.
4) Inner strength and concentration
Never judge yourself. Without denying your feelings, observe your thoughts, your actions, and your feelings, accept all your flaws without inferring yourself. Regain your inner strength in every bad situation.
Everything about Stress
Stress or anxieties are very common in our life. You can say stress is a reaction to any bad situation or any painful situation. Due to this, it increases your blood pressure and also heart rate. Do we precisely know what are the indications of stress and what causes stress? Before discussing the habit that helps to slow down the high stress, we will learn about the symptoms and the causes.
It may also turn into depression. If you think you can’t handle this all by yourself, then you can take help from a psychologist or counselor. Talking with people who can understand your situation will solve half of the problems.
Symptoms to Know that you are in Stress
You can detect whether you are stressed out or not, through different ways, like physically, emotionally, and behavioural etc.
All symptoms related to physical doings
- You may feel like doing nothing except lying on your bed, this is because of low energy. Something due to a lot of pressure you will have major headaches and an upset stomach.
- If you see that you are awake at night, then be sure that you are dining through some major stress.
- You will also see that due to stress your hands and feet are sweating and even your mouth is drying and you can’t even swallow food properly.
The following are the symptoms you will face emotionally
- Often you will see that you are becoming easily agitated and frustrated on small things.
- Sudden overflow of emotions like you are losing something.
- It becomes very difficult for you to relax and keep your mind quiet.
- Feeling lonely and low self-esteem and feels that you are worthless for doing anything.
The following are the symptoms related to behavior
- Confused about whether to eat anything or not to eat.
- Increasing the intake of alcohol, drugs, and cigarette
- Avoiding all the responsibility given to you. Some small behavior like nail-biting, nervous behavior, etc.
All these are the symptoms that people face when they are in stress.
Habits that can Calm you Down and can Reinforce Self-Compassionate
In the beginning, we have discussed how important self-compassion is. Now, we will discuss the habits you can incorporate into your daily life. You need to accept yourself, with all your flaws and with all your imperfection. You need to accept the way you are.
Days will be tough at times but you need to be kind to yourself. We all experience days when we will discourage, demotivate, and at that very moment you need to uplift yourself. Many times people think that being compassionate for oneself is being selfish. It’s nothing like that, being kind towards yourself is very important and the habits that will reinforce self-compassion are given below.
1. Self-talk
No one can understand you better than yourself. Self-talk is very common and very important. Self-talk helps you to develop self-compassion. One of the best ways to stay away from all the negativity around you. We self talk all day through, but what matters, whether you uplift yourself or you demean yourself. Celebrate your journey and appreciate yourself for making it till now.
2. Forgiveness
This may sound easy, but it is the most difficult thing to do. Don’t blame yourself for any situation. Accept the situation, analyze it, and move on. Mistakes happen and it’s completely fine, but holding on to that mistake feeling guilty about it, and punishing yourself is completely wrong. Don’t do that. Forgiving yourself is the biggest weapon toward self-compassion. Only you can ruin your future for past mistakes.
3. Maintain Cleanliness
To maintain a positive aura, cleanliness is important, it also works to regain self-compassion. Cleaning your surroundings brings refreshment. It encourages you to start fresh. You will feel as if you are wiping out all the negativity from your room. According to a survey, people living in unclean & messy surroundings are more likely to get stress without any reason (source: ATDOORSTEP surveys)
4. Accept Failure
Many people don’t have the strength to accept failure and this becomes a serious problem. We all have failed at something at some point in time and you can expect that we are going to fail even in the future. But, that is not the end. Show yourself a little compassion and that will go a long way.
5. Adopt Gratitude
You need to appreciate your journey. It is very easy to blame yourself and others for your problems, but that is not right. You need to adopt gratitude to restart your journey to make it happy and healthy. You will feel grateful to others who were a part of your journey and even for yourself. If you think negatively and see the situation in a negative aspect, then you will attract that energy.
6. Be with Positive People
Thinking positive is just not enough. Being around positive people will bring the best out of you. Try to hang out with people who think positively and for that, you need to choose your friend wisely. Positive thinking people will always encourage you and will never demean you. Your success in life also depends on this.
7. Avoid Comparison
Never compare yourself with someone else. It will affect you negatively if you compare yourself with others. Focus on your talent. Believe in yourself and remember that you’re good enough to do anything. Don’t let the negative voices break you. Don’t get lost in comparing yourself with others.
8. Always Try Something New
You don’t even know how much you are capable of, unless and until you try out new things. Allow yourself to try out new hobbies, it will give you confidence. Do something out of the box, step out of your comfort zone. You will gain new experience and from each new experience, go on a hike or trek, you can learn something new.
Conclusion….
Nowadays, the stress level is getting higher in everyone’s life. People just don’t know how to deal with it, and moreover, sometimes they don’t even know that they are under stress. All the solutions are given above, you just need to go through it and remember every problem has a solution.