Filling Your Emotional Bucket
In fact, the kinder we are to ourselves, the fuller our emotional buckets will be. When our buckets are overflowing, we have even more to offer others. This will inevitably help us become more productive, more supportive, healthier and happier in all areas of our lives.
In addition to making life lighter, self-kindness will improve our self-esteem, strengthen our self-worth, and help us realize that we are more deserving of the good things in life.
Positive change can take some time. To effectively show kindness to ourselves, we need to let go of some of our preconceived ideas and judgements. Let go of the guilt. We need to stop belittling and neglecting ourselves. We need to give ourselves permission to feel good.
Five Steps to Self-Kindness
- The Essentials: Ensuring that your basic needs are met is the first step in being kind to yourself. Getting a good night’s sleep, nourishing your body with good food, drinking plenty of water, and getting enough exercise are some essentials and will get you started on the right foot.
- The Inner Voice: Acknowledge it. You know it’s there — that little voice that likes to criticize you. Start paying attention to what it’s saying and talk back. Find the exception to the thought and reframe it so that it’s more accurate and supportive. Don’t lie to yourself about the positives, but don’t exaggerate the negatives either.
- Experience Emotion: You need to allow yourself to feel what you feel without punishing yourself. Whether you are disappointed, happy, sad, angry, or whatever, feel it authentically and refrain from passing judgement on yourself.
- Reasonable Expectations: Stop trying so hard to be perfect — there is no such thing! We all want to be the best we can be and should strive to do so, but setting unattainable goals is not the answer. We want to be successful, so set expectations that allow that to happen.
- Believe in Yourself: It’s important to have to have faith in your own abilities. Trust yourself, think highly of yourself, establish goals, and allow yourself to dream. Dreams turn into realities. Remember that everything you see around you was once just someone’s thought.
Next Page: Seven Ways to Show Self-Kindness
