Letting Go of Harsh Self-Judgments: The Eight Steps to Change. Step 6.

Remember, we usually live up to our view of ourselves. Are you uplifting or overly critical?

Over the past five weeks, we’ve made great strides in the process of releasing harsh self-judgments and adopting an attitude of self-care and self-compassion by…

1. acknowledging that we want to change.
2. becoming aware that we put ourselves down.
3. catching ourselves each time we are self-critical.
4. becoming our own nurturing self-parent.
5. learning where the self-critical messages originated so that we can challenge them.

Today, we’ll discuss Step 6: Picturing yourself as a child. I find that this is an immensely powerful tool for invoking self-compassion.

Find a photo of you as a young child and put in on your dresser or somewhere that you visit daily. Look at that photo. What do you think you were thinking about when that photo was taken? How might you have been feeling? Now ask yourself if that child deserves to be treated the way you treat yourself. Remember that the child is still very much a part of you. Do you treat that child with kindness?

By returning to a more innocent time in our lives, we can learn to see ourselves in a more compassionate less judgmental way.

Below you will see a review of steps 1-5.