Hello, hello, welcome to Radio Headspace and to Wednesday.

It's Dora here.

Today's episode comes from an email I received from one of our Headspace Community members

in regards to my self-compassion course.

I love this question and I know many of us can relate, so here it goes.

Hi, Dora.

I've just started your course as I've been reflecting lately that I'm not always

very kind to myself and I can be quite judgmental towards others.

The first session left me feeling incredibly sad.

Maybe this is because I haven't ever really taken the time to love and appreciate myself.

I know it's not about getting rid of this sadness, but it's hard to complete a session with

that feeling and then trying to move forward with the day.

I was wondering if you had any additional tips or meditation practices I can add to help me.

So I think for many of us, we may practice self-compassion because it's the thing to do.

We may have this idea that it will feel light and fluffy.

I envision rainbows and stardust and see myself floating on a cloud of self-love when I think

of the word self-compassion.

With the experience, the practice of self-compassion can actually make us feel worse before things

get better.

As I was writing this episode, I asked my dear friend and workmate Ash if he had ever

experienced this before and he gave me a wonderful analogy that was shared with him from his

mindfulness teacher.

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