Show yourself compassion

We visualize a future where we are all able to live in a kind, equitable, just, inclusive, accessible, better world and no one is left behind.

Be like a butterfly 🦋

• Cocooning when needed

• Transforming when ready

• Flying high when it’s time

Welcome to a moment in the garden oasis.

Show yourself compassion.

Before we begin, let’s do our breathing exercise

• Close your eyes. Get comfortable. Turn your palms upwards to the sky. Plant your feet firmly on the ground and just sit there for a moment. What can you hear?

• How does your chair feel? Do you have a nice comfy chair? Or are you sitting on a hard kitchen chair?

• And let’s begin.

• Breathe in through your nose, three, two, one.

• And out through your mouth, three, two, one.

• And in through your nose, three, two, one.

• And out through your mouth, three, two, one.

• Remember to fill your belly with air because that gives you more oxygen, which is very helpful for your body.

• You can continue this exercise for as long as you want, until you feel your heart sync with your breath.

• At that time, you will feel relaxed. Keeping your eyes closed, bring your arms up above your head, reach for the sky, wiggle your fingers, wiggle your toes, bring your arms around and give yourself a big hug. Switch arms and give yourself a big hug the other way. And slowly bring your arms back into your lap.

• Sit quiet for a moment and open your eyes.

Showing ourselves compassion

Sometimes we pile extra expectations on ourselves without considering that we are humans first. We need to cut ourselves some slack. What does humans first mean? It means that each of us has a certain amount of capacity - depending on what else is going on in our lives - professionally, personally, emotionally, physically and spiritually.

There’s not always any spare capacity. So when we take on additional tasks or we set deadlines, we have to bear this in mind, especially as life continues to accelerate faster.

It’s been a heavy week. There’s so much going on.

So I decided to pause and just spend a moment in the garden oasis. So glad you joined me. Remember that when we are starting to feel overwhelmed, we need to cut ourselves some slack. We need to be compassionate to ourselves as well as others.

We need to talk to ourselves like we would talk to anybody else who was feeling the same and talking to us about it. Self-talk often gets in the way. We are so quick to be annoyed with ourselves when we can’t do what we set out to do. But that does not help us.

We can switch it around and say, well, I haven’t been able to do this yet. When we use the word yet, it opens up possibilities. It makes our brain think, oh, there’s hope, always hope.

As you know, this requires flexibility, which is very difficult for some of us. We give other people the benefit of the doubt, but not ourselves. So we have some learning to do, or at least I am a work in progress.

I am practicing walking the talk. My plan was to do a Podcast episode every Thursday, but it simply hasn’t been feasible the past couple weeks. Hence, I decided to spend a moment in the garden oasis with you.

We need to keep things in perspective. And always remember is that we are humans first.

This week I am inviting you to remember to show yourself some compassion.

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Until next time,

Keep your heart open, your curiosity alive, and your hope rooted.

Remember you are helping shape the future through how you connect, how you communicate, and how you choose to show up.