Healing through self-compassion

[shell]

Learning to be self compassionate gave me a way out of the pain I was forcing myself to live in by being abusive to myself. Self compassion is helping to make me a better friend, less judgemental of others, and more supportive and caring.

Self compassion stops me from living my life in the past, and was my way out of depression. Self compassion is healing.

 

[The Albatross]

I'm with Shell and also did a couple 2-3 years self parenting for all the stuff I missed. Then I bumped it up a notch to try to get emotional regulation (still dicey but much improved) and after that, a group I was in decided we all lacked "spontaneous resilience"... that mysterious ingredient non PTSDers or people with other mental injury/illnesses or addictive personalities seem to be missing. So.. my thing for the past couple years now has moved to "resilience". Will it ever be "spontaneous"? Maybe not, but it is improved.

 

[Saria]

it is sure a journey of great self discovery.

Good way of putting it! Self discovery sounds so much more healthy and positive than to treat an old wound. I'll remember that.

@seedling That sounds like such an important discovery and connection you made there! I haven't come so far myself, so it's good to see how others have been able to feel connection and forgiveness both for themselves and others. Forgiving yourself sounds like a really important step. Good luck with working on other memories as well :)


@UniversalBeing I can relate to striving towards perfection to deserve compassion, and I'm glad you're starting to realize that imperfection doesn't make you bad. Only human.

My therapist suggest I stay with that feeling of not being good, not being good enough and then the sadness and the pain comes out and after that the joy. I started thinking of myself as human instead good or bad. I started seeing my reactions as normal reactions to abnormal experiences.

Your experience in therapy reminds me of an analogy: that a wound needs air (or attention) to fully heal. And you can't leave a place you haven't yet arrived, so in order to let it go you must feel it first, which sounds similar to what you're describing? Seeing your reactions as normal reactions to abnormal experiences also sounds like a great step in the right direction!

@shell Your post gives me hope :) Like it holds some sort of soft wisdom (don't know how else to describe it). And it fits your avatar really well. Thank you.

@The Albatross I'm not familiar with the term, but I get what it's referring to, so just keep on working on that mysterious ingredient!