After all, I messed up, doesn’t that mean I should be punished? Well, do you punish your friends or your family when they mess up? Okay, maybe sometimes a little, but do you feel good about it? Everybody makes mistakes at one time or another, it’s a fact of life. And if you think about it, why should you expect anything different? Where is that written contract you signed before birth promising that you’d be perfect, that you’d never fail, and that your life would go absolutely the way you want it to? - Self Compassion
While reading the book Self Compassion it reminds me that making mistakes is ok and the easiest way to start compassion for ourselves is just to start with how you have compassion for others and treat yourself as you would treat a good friend or someone of your family for example.
You probably heard a lot of self-esteem. That it’s so important… But what if you could get the same benefits as high as self-esteem without its drawbacks?
Self-compassion is the perfect alternative for self-esteem. Why? It offers the same protection against harsh self-criticism as self-esteem, but without the need to see ourselves as perfect as better than others.