1. Honestly evaluate the areas in your life that need attention.
An important step to improving your relationship with yourself is to reflect on the areas in your life where you are not honoring your needs. Evaluate the changes you can make, and set boundaries with others as needed.
A helpful place to start is to consider the areas of your life where you are feeling drained. When you start evaluating how you can honor your needs and begin to take action in these areas, you start to build trust with yourself and increase your self-compassion.
2. Practice self-compassion.
Self-compassion can help combat your inner critic and improve your relationship with yourself. A simple way to start practicing is next time you are being critical of yourself, acknowledge that you are experiencing suffering in the present moment. Ask yourself what you need in that moment and reflect about ways you can show yourself compassion. If you have a loud inner critic and feel stuck, it can help to imagine what you would say to a friend in a similar situation. Then apply those same statements to yourself.
3. Engage in meaningful self-care.
When implemented thoughtfully, self-care can be an antidote to feeling disconnected from yourself. Self-care involves intentionally considering how you can take care of yourself and recharge before you are running on empty. Self-care can include relaxing activities or it can include activities that protect your energy such as not responding to work emails after a certain hour or saying no to additional projects or requests for your time. Self-care also includes getting adequate rest, eating nourishing foods, and moving your body regularly.
4. Commit to one habit that you keep every day.
Rather than overwhelm yourself with trying to establish several new habits at the same time, pick one that is realistic for your schedule and initially no more than 10-20 minutes per day. This process can help you build trust with yourself and improve how you relate with yourself over time.
SubRosa Mental Services provides a client-forward approach to helping individuals, businesses, and children, in addition to offering life coaching and emotional support animal assistance. Reach out today to find out more.
