Hi, it’s Dr. Denise Taylor from my wood and today I want to talk to you about self-compassion and it’s something that I’m personally not very good at. I’m a lot better helping other people than showing it to myself. I remember one time working with somebody, helping me address some issues in my life and she was saying, the way you talk to yourself Would you talk to anybody else like that?

And of course, I wouldn’t. But when anything goes wrong, I blame myself. I will go through situations when it’s probably four jumps ahead and nobody could have anticipated it, but I feel it’s something that I should have done. And that’s a really hard thing to have to live with, to have a degree of perfectionism, that you feel that you need to be perfect, you need to have thought everything through, you need to have addressed every potential thing that could go wrong before it did.

And, I’ve been working on it, and I thought I was good. I thought I was dealing with it, and then stuff happens, and you think, actually, you’ve never dealt with it.

It’s just, to one extent, it’s part of what makes me who I am, which is somebody who sets very high standards. But it’s also something that’s very tiring to live with. And I just wondered if you’re somebody who sets overly high standards, and doesn’t talk yourself in a nice way, and doesn’t show any self-compassion.

And, as I think about this, and as I think, is this something that I need to spend more time on, it’s something, I’ve really got back into journaling, so it’s something I’m now journaling about, about the need to forgive myself, because, you know, in the circumstances I did the right thing, and I can’t anticipate everything, I really can’t, you know, stuff happens, and I need to start talking to myself more kindly.

So, something for you to think about and maybe it doesn’t affect you at all. And maybe you’ve noticed it in other people. So, I like to do these short videos, just giving people something to think about and reflect on. So, till next time, it’s Dr Denise from down the wood.