After what felt like the longest year ever, it’s 2021, and with a new year often come new year’s resolutions. Perhaps you want to lose the "COVID-19" or simply maintain the healthy habits drummed into us during the pandemic. People who practice self-compassion are happier, more productive people who are more likely to form and keep good habits.
According to Science Daily, participating in self-compassion exercises reduces the heart rate, which turns off the body’s threat response. This threat response damages the immune system, increasing the risk of disease. Additionally, a 2017 study published in Health Psychology Open found self-compassionate people are better at handling stress than those who are not.
Though studies have consistently shown self-compassion is a healthier, more productive path to success, the studies do not always specify the best ways to practice it. Below are 5 ways to practice being kinder to yourself:
1. Take Care of Yourself
Eating nutritious meals, drinking enough water and getting light exercise for at least 30 minutes a day are great starts for self-care. When you’re busy and stressed it is easy to forget and neglect yourself. It is important to get some fresh air, move your body and make good choices when choosing what to eat. Not only will it help you clear your mind and focus, but it will help keep your energy up when you normally might crash. Not eating nutritiously, forgetting to eat, eating unhealthy foods, not hydrating or drinking too much caffeine can all fuel stress and exhaustion. Make sure to cover the basics because the little things make all the difference, and remember: Each meal is an opportunity for a healthier choice. Don't wait until next Monday, or next month. Start with your next meal!
PRO TIP: Don't forget about the Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
The EAP gives you and your loved ones completely free, entirely confidential access to the counseling program’s tools and services you need to live a balanced and happy life. You have 24/7 access to professionals who will listen and help you work through whatever your needs are. Country Club Bank offers you and your family members access to six sessions per issue, per year. For more info, look back at this in-depth article.
2. Get Enough Sleep
If there's one thing bankers can understand, it's debt. The American Psychological Association says that people carrying a heavy “sleep debt” diminish their ability to make decisions, have cognitive and physiological deficits and have trouble focusing. Getting enough sleep is an investment in your quality of work and productivity. If that isn't reason enough to invest in your sleeping habits, check out these 10 Reasons Why Sleep Is Important.
3. Set Boundaries
When you experience stress, it’s essential to understand what you need physically and emotionally and to structure your life and schedule around those needs. Whether you need time to complete a project or are simply burned out and need time to rest, schedule, cancel, create time and space for your needs. Learn to politely decline or reschedule appointments and meetings if need be. Your needs are just as important as other people’s needs.
4. Recognize How You Speak To Yourself
Treat others the way you'd like to be treated has always been a great rule to follow, but do you follow it for how you treat and talk to yourself? We can be our harshest critics at times. It's time for that toxic trait to be replaced! Psychology Today recommends talking to yourself the way you would speak to someone you love. Sometimes we talk negatively to ourselves without even realizing it. Begin to pay attention to your self-speak. Recognizing that you are communicating to yourself in a negative manner is the first step to correcting it! Interested in learning how to improve the way you talk to yourself? Check out this article on Positive Self-Talk: How Talking to Yourself Is a Good Thing.
5. Abandon Perfection
Self-compassion is often portrayed as lazy or indulgent, but taking care of yourself is the only way you will be able to continue to also take care of others. Self-care and compassion are about allowing ourselves room to be flawed and human. Embrace progress over perfection. Take these facts into consideration:
A perfect game pitched in baseball means there are no hits or runners allowed on base by a pitcher for nine innings.
To be a Budweiser Clydesdale horse, the animal has to be exactly 72 inches tall when mature, between 1,800 and 2,300 pounds, have a bay coat, four white legs, and a black mane and tail.
But most of you reading right now don't have the time to worry about winning the Cy Young Award or pulling a beer wagon on all fours this year. Perfection doesn’t take our differences into consideration. When we shift our attention to those around us, we’ll notice that we don’t have the same beginnings, current situations, or aspirations. Choosing progress over perfection means you take all those factors into play in your personal journey. Your starting point will look different than those around you, and you’ll see that the path you take to a better you will look different, too. This is the year to bid goodbye to unfair standards and begin to focus and acknowledge your conscious efforts on better instead of perfection.
2020 showed us how resilient we can be and how far extending kindness can lead. Let's let 2021 be the year we extend that kindness to ourselves, too. Happy New Year, CCB!
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